Fires of Change
by DhtrofIsis
Summary: Nemorii Vohn crashes on Taris and gains an unlikely group of allies. LSF. Yes it's an update.
1. Collisions Pt 1

A/N: This is simply a restructure of the previous story of the same name. The chapters were just too long and unwieldly for computer reading. Plus I took the opportunity to make some minor edits. There's no new content, so if you read the previous version you won't miss anything if you skip it. Thanks to Sirius, Slkwind, and Starburst for the previous reviews.

Disclaimer: I own nothing except Morii and any OC's. No really I own nothing... the bank owes it all. So don't sue me for a big chunk of my nothing. I make no money from this, hence the owning nothing.

_

* * *

The Jedi say the Force binds all things in the galaxy. Every thought, every word, and every action that takes place sends out ripples to the farthest ends of the Unknown Regions. A small pebble thrown into an ocean can destroy or save worlds. Even the smallest act, the most casual word can change the course of the entire galaxy. Move this rock from here to over there and a battle erupts on a planet light years away. Say the wrong thing at the right time and you send someone on a path, for good or ill that they never would have followed otherwise._

_It is the task of the Jedi to try and see these connections and how they will affect each other, but it is a daunting and monumental task. For if something so small can change the destiny of worlds then what effect do the larger actions have? When someone decides to change the fate of the galaxy what kind of echoes do they send out into the blackness? And more important; when the echoes return to their owner, as they always do, how do they change the one who originated the echo? If the galaxy is about connections and their effect, what then? What happens to the one that birthed such a cry?_

_Do we reap what we sow? Do the consequences of our actions come back to haunt us? How can anyone ever hope to do the right thing in such a mire of connections? The Jedi and the Sith both share a common belief. The Force will occasionally choose instruments to bring balance back to the galaxy. That in order to combat so much choice and free will sometimes a tool must be forged to restore the order of the galaxy, to follow the will of the Force. They are most often forged by fire. The fire shapes and bends them into something stronger and more durable than the original form. Such tools often remain ignorant of their purpose but one thing both factions of the same religion know is that the instrument, the tool's life is rarely their own. _

_However, there is always the will of the tool. Even the Force, destiny, or whatever it is labeled cannot destroy free will. This is where it gets interesting_.

* * *

Morii had been afraid, but now she felt safe and warm. A thick comforting liquid enclosed her, and she felt protected. There had been something awful, something terrible but now it was gone. A memory stirred from the back of her brain and made her reach out for comfort with her mind. _Mama?_ She asked tremulously. No one answered and Morii began to become afraid again. _Mama?_ Morii asked again, louder this time. Still there was the awful nothing and panic bloomed in her chest. _Mama!_ She mentally yelled. Finally she felt the comforting touch of a feminine mind which soothed her. Morii relaxed in the liquid. _Mama, I was afraid_, she sent.

_You're safe now_, the other mind responded.

_Don't leave me alone again in the dark, Mama_, Morii begged.

_Don't worry I'll be right here_.

Safe, Morii went limp and fell back asleep in the warm liquid.

* * *

The contact had shaken Bastila badly as she hadn't been expecting it. The voice had been that of a young child, not an adult. Bastila walked over to the tank and studied the older woman floating inside. Her skin had finally healed and smoothed out, the veins no longer stood out against her skin, and her hair had grown considerably, which was a common side effect of kolto due to its regenerative powers. Bastila knew she should be afraid of the unconscious woman in the kolto tank. The Padawan should fear the patient's power and who she had been. But when Bastila looked upon the other woman's peaceful face she heard that voice again. _Mama, I was afraid_. Terror rolled off the voice and the woman in waves. The female Padawan had tried to ignore it with a hope the owner of the voice would go away. This bond made her extremely uncomfortable. To be so intimately tied to another, and to be so intimately tied to _her_ of all people was a frightening thought. Finally Bastila responded when the pleading tone of the mental voice squeezed that at her heart. The voice had sounded so lost, so alone and so afraid. Bastila sent back soothing thoughts. It had calmed the other woman and she had fallen asleep content.

_Perhaps she can still use the Force_, Bastila thought. She should tell the masters. They would want to know of this. But Bastila hesitated, she felt protective of this other woman; irrational as it was. This woman was a monster… wasn't she? What would they do to her if they thought she could still feel the Force? Bastila was afraid of the Council's intentions for the first time in her life, afraid of what they might do. No, she decided, Bastila wouldn't tell them. After all the cause may just the bond that Bastila had accidentally forged. That could be the reason she could hear the unconscious woman's thoughts.

"Padawan, time to go it is." A voice startled Bastila out of her thoughts.

Bastila turned to look down at the small green male strolling toward her. Guilt ran through her at remaining silent of the contact. Master Vandar only stood to about Bastila's waist. The Jedi had dull brown skin and large pointy ears that stuck out both sides of his head. He was dressed in a small blue Master's robe that still didn't fit properly. Bastila wondered again why the Jedi Master didn't get better tailored robes. Master Vandar may have looked fragile, but he came from a race that had produced some of the greatest and most powerful of Jedi. One tangled with the diminutive sentient at their peril.

Master Vandar gave Bastila a small smile, "Do you justice it does that you can feel compassion for her," Vandar said as he nodded his head at the woman in the tank. "But let it sway you do not. Ever wary you must be, once the dark path is taken, much harder to resist it is."

"Yes, Master, as Master Vrook has reminded me," Bastila answered. She gave a mental shudder at her irritated tone.

Master Vandar's smile widened in response, "Frightened Master Vrook is, and not without good reason." Bastila responded to the statement with a shocked look and Vandar chuckled. "Even Masters trouble controlling their emotions have. No less in danger of the dark side are we than you, Padawan, or her," Master Vandar nodded once again at the tank. "Better at hiding it we just are," Vandar's eyes sparkled with amusement but turned serious. "Insidious the Dark Side is. The easier path it is called for a reason. Ever vigilant all Jedi must be, even Masters."

Bastila was surprised and honored that Master Vandar had shared that with her. She nodded at the Master Jedi, "I will remember, Master."

"A great Jedi you will be, Padawan," Master Vandar gave her a fond smile and reached up to give her arm a comforting pat. "Come, time to go it is. Our plan now we initiate."

Bastila nodded once and followed the master toward the door. She paused at the exit and took one last look at the tank. _I won't fail you_, she sent out to the floating form, _I won't let you fall. You are my responsibility and I will take care of you._

_Mama?_

Bastila gave a small smile and walked out of the room.

* * *

Morii woke again, this time alone. The pain was gone and things were clearer. She was still floating free in the liquid as she opened her eyes. Her world consisted of a green haze and she could hear muffled soft noises coming from the world around her.

_Mama?_ She asked hopefully. Morii listened hard for a response but heard only the soft beeps and clicks of the room beyond. _Mama, are you there?_ Still there was nothing. _Mama!_ Morii was alone! It was dark and she was alone! She began thrashing wildly in her tubular prison. She had to get out! Escape! The dark would eat her with claws and gnashing teeth! In a panic she swung her arms and legs but the liquid slowed her movements. Morii ripped at the mask that covered her mouth and inhaled to scream but choked on the kolto liquid. _MAMAAAAA!_ She screamed. Unable to bear the threat of the looming dark Morii _pushed_ out and felt the watery substance rush forward taking her with it. She lay on the broken glass littering the floor while sopping wet, coughing up the kolto in her lungs.

When she had finally regurgitated the last of the medicine, Morii gasped in huge breaths as she pushed herself up and looked around the room, with wide eyes. Lights flashed and beeps echoed from strange things on the walls… _consoles_. Yes, she knew they were consoles. And another thing was making noises at her… talking… with words. _Droid_, her mind provided the name for it. It was saying something, telling her something but she couldn't make out what.

A shriek started to echo through the room. Morii covered her ears in self defense and gave wild looks around, jerking her head from side to side. Angry, she tilted her head back and screamed in defiance at the noise. She spotted a particularly bright light across the room. She decided this was the source of her ire. She walked over to the flashing red light and punched the thing below it… _panel_, that's what it was. Sparks flew out and pain shot through her fist. The pain further enraged her as she hit it again and again until it was silent. Her hand was blackened and coated with red… _blood_. Blood she knew, blood she remembered. She didn't like it; she didn't like seeing her blood.

The droid started to move toward Morii and she skittered away with a snarl. Her legs bumped into something and Morii spun around. She grabbed the object…_chair_, and heaved it over her head to smash it into the droid. The medical droid's frame crumpled under the impact and its vocabulator slowed like a toy winding down. Morii yelled without words at it.

_Run!_ Her brain told her. _Flee, before it comes for you!_ Confused and crazed Morii looked for something… a _door_. There was one on the other end of the room. Morii wanted a door. Her hand was almost to the exit when she paused and looked down at herself… she needed something else… _clothes_; that was it. Morii needed clothes or she would attract attention. Looking around she saw… _clothes_ hanging on a wall.

Morii grabbed the jumpsuit, pulled it on by instinct and zipped up the front. But there was something else missing… a _weapon_, in case the dark came for her. She needed a weapon. Morii grabbed a long metal lever attached to the wall and _pulled_. She ripped the rod out of its home and brought it up in a defensive pose. She proceeded toward the… _door_. Doors led out. Doors led to escape.

As Morii approached the door nothing happened. She cocked her head to the side and stared at it. Then she pulled back her weapon to bash it once, twice, and then over and over with anger. She had to get out! She had to get away!

The repeated bashing wasn't doing her any good. Morii stopped and studied around the door. On the right hand side she saw a… _plate_. It was a door plate and door plate would open the door to her freedom. Morii waved a hand over the plate but nothing happened. She tried it again and still nothing. With a yell of frustration she slammed her rod into the panel plate and it sparked and shattered. The door slid part of the way open and she was able to squeeze through.

A dim hallway in gray tones stretched out before Morii and she jogged barefoot down it, desperate to get out. At the end the hallway the corridor branched in two opposite directions. Morii looked back and forth in confusion trying to decide which way to go.

A medic had the misfortune of coming around the corner at that moment. He and Morii spotted each other at the same time. "Hey!" he shouted. "What are you doing? You should be in the tank!" Medic Gityan Polis didn't know who the patient was, just that the Jedi were adament about her being kept incapacitated.

Morii narrowed her eyes at the man. _He means to stop you! Don't let him_! With a snarl she charged the man and slammed into him. Gityan felt the weight of his commlink fall off his belt when he was hit and screamed as the primal woman took him to the floor. He tried to scramble away and reach his communicator but Morii snaked out her arm and grabbed his hand. She gave a sharp jerk back and there was the sound of bone popping. Gityan howled in pain. The sound hurt Morii's ears and she screamed back at him and then punched him in the face. The medic's head slammed against the floor and he lost consciousness.

Morii picked up the comm and studied it for a moment. Deciding it was of no use she threw it against the wall where it broke apart. She looked down at the man's belt and saw something else attached. This she could use! She plucked up the small flat piece of plastic and studied it. This opened locked doors. _Pass card_… her mind supplied for her. She held the pass card in her left hand and took off in the direction the medic had come from.

The halls were dark with little light and the wet slaps of her footsteps sent echoes down the hall. The strange voice in her mind that used her voice instructed her to stop at the end of the hall. Morii darted her head around the corner. She saw a door guarded by two men in bright clothes with things on their heads… _helmets_. Morii wanted through that door and escape.

Morii tightened her grip on the piping and charged around the corner. The time the two Republic troopers looked up an instant too late as Morii drew back her weapon and slammed it into the side of the left guard's head. He fell to the ground with a soft moan, still semi-conscious. The right guard lifted the thing in his arms… _rifle_ but Morii whipped back her piping and hit him in the gut. Before he could recover his breath Morii spun in a circle and lashed out her right foot. It connected with the man's jaw and his head slammed into the wall with a crunch. Morii turned to the other guard who was laying on the floor blinking in confusion. She took her pipe and gave a controlled swing to the side of his head again and he fell back unconscious.

Morii paused for a moment panting. The two guards were still and she went over to the one on the right and began stripping his clothes. There was no movement from this one, he was perfectly still_. You snapped his neck, now hurry!_ The voice in her mind yelled. She retrieved the dead man's clothes and put them on. They didn't fit quite right but the other man was bigger, his clothes were no good. Last Morii donned the helmet and pulled out her pass card. She found a terminal in the wall and by instinct slid it in. The door parted and Morii disappeared into the night.

* * *

"I am sorry, Master Jedi, but my troops have searched everywhere and we can't find any sign of the patient," the trooper sergeant shook his head in emphasis. "I have men watching the Star port but if we knew her name it might be easier to find her…" Sergeant Jendot had been frustrated by the Jedi's unwillingness to come forth with information on the escaped patient.

"We apologize for being unable to tell you more, Sergeant," Master Zhar offered, "but we have faith in your abilities. Please continue the search. It is very important that the patient be found."

Jendot recognized the statement as a dismissal. He spun sharply on his heel and marched out the med lab door. Frankly he only wanted to find this "patient" to see her brought to justice for killing one man and injuring two others.

It was only after the Republic soldier left that the Jedi continued their conversation. "I told you she was dangerous! We should have killed her! Now look what has happened!" Vrook paced the empty med bay that contained the shattered kolto tank. "Two men badly injured and one dead! Who knows what she is doing now."

"What would you have had us do Vrook?" Master Zhar watched Vrook pace with calm detachment. "Kill her? After Padawan Shan went through so much to save her? And what of Malak? She may be the only hope we have of stopping the Sith."

"She's dangerous! This incident only proves that and now she's on the loose doing Force knows what. And she's unsupervised! The reprogramming wasn't finished! Now what will she do?" Master Vrook's agitation flustered his etched face. "It would have been better to let her die!" he spat.

"Mindful of your emotions be, Vrook," Vandar counseled as he stood next to Master Zhar. "Not the Jedi way to kill helpless prisoners… and helpless she was. Know the pain she has caused you we all do, Vrook." Master Vandar's voice was sympathetic.

Vrook took in a deep breath and closed his eyes. After a moment he opened them seeming calmer. "I apologize for my outburst," he said reluctantly. "You are right, Vandar, I let my emotions get the better of me."

The door to the med bay opened again and a young vibrant Padawan came through. Bastila had gone to see if she could find any trace of the woman she had inadvertently forged a bond with. She looked up at the Masters and Vrook gave a dejected sigh.

Bastila stopped in front of the assembled Jedi and hung her head. "I am sorry I can find no trace of her." She looked up at the Masters and continued, "I think she may have managed to leave the planet. If she was anywhere nearby I should be able to hear her… like an echo. The only thing I can sense through our bond is that she is still alive."

Vrook looked grave, "This is serious. Force knows where the woman is bound if she left the planet. I think we may have made a serious error in judgment." The look he sent Bastila made it clear that he felt she was the one who had made the mistake.

"The Force works in mysterious ways, Vrook," Zhar began, "I have a feeling we shall see her again."


	2. Collisions Pt 2

_One year later:_

"Miss Vohn? Miss Vohn, can you hear me?"

Morii coughed and gagged in response. A thick antiseptic smell surrounded her. She felt the liquid come up her throat and then the cool sensation of metal against her cheek as someone put a container next to her face. Morii threw up and it tasted awful, but all too familiar.

"Don't worry, Miss Vohn, it's a common side effect of the kolto treatment." The annoying and cheery voice assured her. "Despite out best efforts patients tend to aspirate some of the liquid. You'll feel better once you get it all up." Morii continued to vomit until her stomach muscles quivered in protest. Finally she was reduced to coughs and dry heaves when she cracked open one eye. The room was blessedly dim as she lay on a medical bed in her underwear. There were other beds in the room, but she and her bucket-holder were the only two people currently in it. Morii squinted and looked up at her caretaker. The woman was young and fresh-faced, with vibrant red hair and a bright smile. Morii groaned at the sight and closed her eyes.

"When you're ready, Miss Vohn, I have some water but you should only take a little or you might vomit again."

Morii croaked a response.

"I'm sorry," the bubbly woman asked, "What was that?"

Morii licked her lips and immediately regretted it as the taste of kolto and barf burned her tongue. She gathered air to her lungs and tried again. "Ms." Her voice was raspy and harsh as she looked back at the medical person, nurse… whatever.

The redhead blinked in surprise, but recovered quickly. "Oh well then, Ms. Vohn, would you like some water?"

Morii nodded a response to spare her abused throat. The woman placed a hand on Morii's back to help her sit and picked up a half full glass of water from a table next to the bed. She handed the glass to Morii who took it in both her hands. Morii began taking careful sips despite her thirst and the nasty taste in her mouth, remembering the redhead's warning and not wanting a repeat performance. She cradled the glass to her chest and hunched on the bed with her knees drawn up.

"No doubt you're disoriented," the other woman continued brightly as she stood up from the bed and started pressing buttons on the panel next to it. "You're lucky that salvage crew was in the neighborhood, although I'm not sure how pleased they were to find you still alive. Ruined their payday I imagine."

"Where am…" Morii cleared her throat, "where am I?"

"Oh of course," the redhead blushed. "You're on Ord Mandell. It's a small Republic supply station in the outer Rim. Do you remember what happened?"

Morii's forehead furrowed as she tried to remember. Lights, burning flesh, pain… but it was all jumbled and meshed together in her head. "Explosion…" she whispered, her throat still recovering from lack of use and yakking. She remembered an explosion and then pain… searing, awful pain, and then nothing.

"Yes that's right." The woman gave a happy nod. "From what the salvage crew was able to gather from your files you were ambushed by a squad of pirates. They've been getting to be a problem in this system lately," Redhead sighed dramatically. "One of their shots destroyed your bridge panel and caused it to explode. You were badly injured and I'm afraid they did get your cargo. Funny the salvage crew couldn't find any record of what you were transporting." Redhead raised her eyebrows in a question but Morii merely grunted in response. "A salvage ship came upon your wreckage and pulled you from it barely alive. You've been here for three weeks now. At first we didn't think you were going to make it."

"Three weeks!" Morii winced as the yell further abused her throat. Frack! Ketos was going to be pissed.

"Yes that's right, you are one lucky lady that's for sure," Redhead nodded. Morii however wasn't to sure about that. Her brain had started to defog and she started to feel queasy for a different reason. Obviously whatever pirates that had attacked her managed to make off with the spice shipment. She was two weeks overdue now to deliver it to Ketos's buyer and she had lost it. Morii groaned, _I should have known better than to take a shipment with the Exchange_. Morii would be lucky to be alive after Ketos got through with her, never mind what had happened to her ship.

"My ship…?" she asked the redhead.

The other woman frowned. "I'm sorry, Ms. Vohn, the ship was damaged beyond repair. The salvage crew scrapped it. They took a ten percent fee and the rest of what they received for the materials has been transferred into your account. Would you like to take a shower now?"

Morii gave a despondent nod. She might as well not meet her death smelling like kolto.

* * *

It just went from bad to worse. Morii shook her head as she stared down at her data pad. The salvage from her ship was barely enough to pay what she still owed on the loan. The payment from that spice shipment would have cut the debt for her new ship in half, but instead now she was broke, ship-less, and she'd bet her last credit she was going to have a bounty on her head within a standard week, if not already. Morii sat at a chair in the station cantina and dropped her head into her hands. Fracking son of a schutta! What the hell was she going to do? Run like hell, that's what she was going to do, no matter what it took. She like being alive thanks very much. No way was she going to sit around here waiting for Ketos's thugs to show up and break her kneecaps, or worse. 

Morii heard someone sit across the table from her and lifted her head in preparation to tell another hopeful suitor to get lost. A woman sat alone in a cantina and suddenly ever core slime in the galaxy thought she was looking for a date. _Oh great this one was a Republic_, she thought as she looked at the man in front of her. He had sandy blond hair and friendly blue eyes.

"No I don't want a drink, go away," Morii told the soldier and dropped her head back into her palms. If she had been in a better mood she might have been more open to his advances, he was attractive enough, but right now she just wanted to be left alone to wallow.

"Ms. Vohn? Nemorii Vohn?" the man asked with an open smile.

Morii lifted her head once again and narrowed her eyes at him. As far as she knew she didn't have any current warrants out on her. "Maybe," she said slowly.

"Lieutenant Cheydor, Republic Fleet," he held out his hand. Morii stared at it and then looked back to his face without taking it.

"What do you want?" Okay that probably wasn't very diplomatic but she wasn't really in the mood.

Lt. Cheydor's smile faltered for a moment as he pulled back his hand. His demeanor however stayed pleasant. "Well actually, I'm here to offer you a job. I understand you've fallen on some hard times?"

Morii glared at him, "No, Lt. Cheydor, I am not a hooker so go get your jollies elsewhere." Great now every Tom, Dick and Wookiee on the station would be pestering her.

The soldier shifted nervously in his seat and laughed, "Um, I'm afraid there's been some misunderstanding here ma'am… it's not that kind of job. It's legitimate work, for the Republic."

Morii thought about arguing that prostitution was legitimate work and hard work at that, but instead asked, "Doing what exactly?"

The lieutenant shrugged, "The fleet's shorthanded as you probably know… what with the war and all." Morii nodded in response and the fleet man continued, "We've been hiring mercs, scouts, and ah… independent traders such as yourself to fill out the ranks. You possess skills that the Republic is eager to make use of, and your translating skills alone would have caught our attention. It pays very well I can assure you. I thought since you seem to be at an impasse you might be interested?" he made the last sentence into a question.

Morii leaned back in her chair, kicked a boot up on the table and raised one eyebrow, "I might be, lieutenant, tell me more." Things were starting to look up.

* * *

Morii hiked her duffel bag up her shoulder to get it into a more comfortable position. She had managed to talk Cheydor into giving her an advance and used the credits to buy the essentials like a blaster, vibroblade, some grenades, tampons… things no girl on the go should be without. Still everything she owned in the galaxy fit into one bag, and it was damn depressing. If she ever found the pirates that did this too her she was going to kill them, very slowly. 

Morii glanced around at the organized chaos that surrounded her. The Republic capital ship Morii had been assigned to; _The Endar Spire_ was currently docked at the space station above Ord Mandell. This was a lucky break for Morii. Not only would she be able to hide from Ketos in the Republic fleet, she'd be able to earn some credits and get back on her feet. She'd signed on for a six month tour with the option to re-enlist if she wanted to at the end. Morii had no intention of doing so. Once she did her stint and got enough to pay off Ketos she was out of there.

Morii was currently in line behind a bored Trandoshan merc who was digging in his nostril with one claw. Morii stuck out her tongue in disgust at the sight and then looked away before she said something she might regret. Most of the sentients were in Republic uniforms except for her line, which was populated with mercs, scouts, and independent traders… Morii smirked at the last one. That was a new one on her.

"Next!" the Republic noncom instructed. Morii realized that the reptilian nose-gold miner was gone and stepped forward. The human woman had short bristly iron grey hair, skin so dark it was almost black and deep brown eyes. She gave Morii a look of barely veiled hostility as Morii stepped forward. She had been encountering that a lot the past couple of days. Apparently the soldiers didn't like all this civilian help mucking up their nice little military. "Name?" the woman asked in a bored voice.

"Nemorii Vohn. Hey when do we get some chow? I'm starving."

The wiry woman narrowed her eyes at Morii, "Meals are served in the mess at appointed times. Everything you need to know is on this data pad." She shoved the data pad across the little table and into Morii's stomach. "You're quarters are in E deck, bunk 5950." Morii grabbed the data pad automatically and the woman made a notation on her own pad. "You've been assigned to the Jedi diplomatic detachment. Welcome to the Fleet. Next!"

Morii scooted out of the way with a scowl. Grouchy schutta, it wasn't Morii's fault that the soldier had a personality deficiency. She gave a chuckle and a shrug, letting it drop. Oh well.

Morii started to read her new data pad as she entered the airlock gate. There was a map of the ship, her duty roster, and her commanding officer. Bastila Shan, Jedi, fleet commander. Wow the fleet was so hard up it was making Jedi commanders. What the data pad didn't say was what exactly she was supposed to be doing for the Jedi. The thought creeped her out slightly, everyone heard rumors about Jedi. Some were dumb; like the one about them being able to turn people into a gizka, but some were scary… like that a Jedi could literally turn your skin inside out or just rip it right off using that lightning of theirs.

Morii was walking down the ship corridors as she continued to read. She noted happily that there was a pseudo cantina on the ship. Whoopee, alcohol! After the week she'd had Morii could use a drink or two… or five. She been worried the _Spire_ would end up being a dry ship but apparently it was equipped for long runs hence the cantina. An army may run on its stomach but alcohol usually came in a close second. There was some background information on the ship's service history, a list of commanding officers, and…

Morii's reading was interrupted as she smacked into a large, bright orange wall. "Fracking son of a Kath!" she swore as the wall grabbed her shoulders in an effort to keep her upright. Her duffel bag tumbled off her shoulder and onto the deck, and her data pad followed shortly after.

The day-glow wall chuckled at her swearing and asked "Are you alright?"

Morii looked up and thought _nice eyes… but baaaad jacket_. The wall… er man in front of her was about six foot with brown hair and eyes the color of Corellian Whisky. Morii had a fondness for that particular drink. The effect was spoiled by the garish jacket the man wore. It was the color of twenty year old rust on a septic tank.

"Um yeah… sorry about that, I wasn't paying attention. Again sorry," she responded. Morii backed up and searched the hall for her bag. She spotted it in a heap next to her and bent over to grab it.

Carth gave a wry smile to the civvie woman. At first glace she didn't look like much. She was about 5'5", with brown hair in a woven braid on the back of her head and ice blue eyes. She was a bit too curvy, but there was solid muscle under her frame, and that made Carth think she was probably a lot tougher than she appeared. Like most in the fleet he had reservations about hiring civilians to flush out the ranks, but it's not like command had much of a choice nowadays. "Here let me help," he said as he bent over to pick up her bag.

Morii waved him off, "Nah I got it, and it's the least I can do after trying to mow you down." She picked up the duffel and settled it back onto her shoulder with a soft grunt. "Again I'm sorry about that."

Carth handed her back her data pad and shrugged, "No problem."

"Well thanks, see yah." Morii headed off in her previous direction she'd been but stopped and looked at the halls in confusion. She turned back to fluorescent man. "Um, is this E deck?"

Carth shot her an amused look, "No this is B deck."

Morii rolled her eyes, "Damn! Where the hell is E deck?"

Carth gave her instructions to the lift. She returned them with a winning smile. "Thanks," she said with a wave as she trotted down the hall back the way she'd just come.

Carth shook his head, "Civilians," he muttered.

* * *

Finally Morii found E deck and her quarters. She set down her heavy duffel on the room's bare bed. From the looks of the spic and span area across the way she was sharing with someone from the fleet. Morii strolled over to the other bunk and studied the wrinkle-free covers. The bottom corners tucked neatly under the mattress and the bedding was evenly draped over each side. Yep, that bed has got to be a soldier's. Personally Morii had never seen the point in making beds, you just got into them at the end of the day and messed them up all over again. Waste of time in her opinion. 

Morii glanced at the chronometer and noted that they were getting ready to serve food in the main mess. She left the quarters and trotted down the ship corridors. Unfortunately by the time she actually found the main mess it was half an hour later and the place was packed. The Republic fleet may have had a personnel shortage, but luckily they were still stocked up on food. Morii grabbed a tray and loaded up as she moved down the food line. It certainly wasn't a high class meal, but Morii had eaten worse and she was starving. After she had finished Morii stood in the middle of the mess and glanced around the room to find a place to sit. She noticed the officers were all seated in one area, and oh ho! look who was with them… her fashion impaired pedestrian accident victim. She until now had pegged the Orange Jacket Man for another civilian since he wasn't in a uniform. In the back corner sat men and women in nearly identical neutral toned tunics and robes; they must have been the Jedi. The rest of the mess patrons had left a wide space around the table. Morii couldn't blame them as personally the thought of sitting next to a Jedi made her squirm. Probably try to read her mind or something.

A strange man with a white-blond crew cut waved her over. Morii narrowed her eyes in suspicion but moved toward him. "Nemorii Vohn, right?" the soldier gestured to the empty seat across from him and without waiting continued. "I'm Trask Ulgo, have a seat."

Morii sat and asked, "How the hell do you know who I am?"

"I'm your bunkmate," he explained. "The fleet paired all the civvies with enlisted personnel. Recognized you from the holo they gave me. I'm supposed to help you get acclimated and all that stuff. Wow, are you going to eat all that?" he asked when he spotted her bursting tray.

Morii felt a bit of whiplash from the subject change but said seriously, "No, I was going to build a fort." She was used to jabs about her appetite.

Trask stared for a moment and then laughed. "Well I'm just about done if you need some more building materials." He waved at his plate.

Morii grinned back at him as she took her spoon and scooped up something that looked chocolaty. "Neat," she put the spoon in mouth and swallowed. "Not bad." She thought she was rather going to like this Trask guy. He had a sense of humor _and_ let her eat off his plate.

Trask snorted, "Not a picky eater, are you?"

"Not really, so, Trask… fill me in on the scuttlebutt."

They talked for over an hour about mostly the Jedi, whose mission was apparently top secret. Morii asked him about the ship routine and about the commanding crew. She then asked about the Orange Jacket Guy.

"Carth Onasi? He's one of the best damn pilots in the fleet. From what I understand he's not here to fly though but as an advisor for the Jedi commander. He uh," Trask leaned forward conspiratorially, "He's got a bit of a reputation of having a death wish. Rumor is he got pulled from active duty for a psych eval."

Oh great, Morii had slammed into the ship's resident crazy person. She leaned into Trask and asked quietly, "A death wish? Why?"

Trask's eyes looked sad, "My guess would be the fact that he's from Telos."

"Oh," everyone had heard about Telos. "That'd do it," Morii said sadly.

They finally rose when it was time for Trask to go on duty. He worked in engineering on graves, although he was hoping to get transferred to mid-shift soon. Morii debated heading for the ship cantina but decided to go to bed instead. Frankly it had been a long day and she was beat. When Morii got to her bunk she spread a bottom sheet and a blanket. In her haste for food Morii had forgotten to make the bed. After the mattress was sufficiently covered Morii stipped off her clothes, sleeping in the nude. Normally she would have worn a bit more in a co-ed Republic room but Trask wouldn't be back before morning, so she decided she might as well sleep comfortable. She left her clothes lying on the floor and slipped gratefully between the covers.


	3. Collisions Pt 3

For some reason Morii's bed was shaking. She bolted up and yelled while still asleep "What the frelling hell?!" before an extra nasty tremor hit and she tumbled out of bed. Morii landed on her rear and rubbed it to dispel the stinging. Noise from the viewport turned Morii's head and her jaw dropped as she looked outside. Cannon blasts lit up the blackness and a small fighter exploded just outside her window. This was just great. She joined the fleet to avoid dying, not to get killed in a space battle! Morii heard the door swish open and Trask rushed in.

"We've been ambushed by the Sith! C'mon we've got to get to bridge!" Trask was flushed and a bit wild eyed as he entered the room. He paused however when he saw Morii and his eyes drifted down to her chest.

"Hey!" Morii yelled in protest. She then stood and put her hands on her hips in annoyance. "Take a holo, Trask…"

"What? Oh sorry…" Trask at least had the decency to blush as he turned his eyes to the wall. "C'mon, grab your gear and let's go!"

Morii was more upset about the ogling than anything as Deralians didn't have nudity issues. Clothes were to keep you warm and to look good. When Trask turned his back she slipped on her underwear and bra, then picked up her black trousers and started hopping into them and then pulled on her boots. "Why the hell are we going to the bridge? And what are you doing here?" she asked Trask's back as she grabbed at and yanked her short sleeved blue shirt over her head.

"I'm supposed to keep you safe," Morii stopped in the middle of slipping on her vest and stared at Trask's back.

"What?" she yelled over a large blast from somewhere outside the room, thinking maybe she had heard him wrong.

Trask cursed the slip. He was stressed from the fight to get to his bunkmate and new to his division. For the hundredth time Trask regretted joining special operations. He was not cut out for undercover. Trask decided that honesty was the best policy at this point, and the woman getting dressed behind didn't seem like she was going to buy anymore lines. Besides he didn't have time to argue. "I lied about my job, I'm special ops. I was assigned by the Jedi attachment to make sure nothing happened to you." Trask started to turn around. Seeing she was clothed he faced the open mouthed Morii full on. "Look, I don't know why, I just do as I'm ordered and my orders are to make sure you remain safe. But the orders to protect Bastila supersedes even those, so we need to get to bridge and make sure the Sith don't get a hold of her. Hurry up!" he told Morii, who was staring at him stunned.

Morii blinked once and zipped up her vest. She grabbed her hair tie from the dresser. With no time to braid it she pulled the curly cue locks on top of her head and tied it into a high messy ponytail. "If Bastila's a Jedi, I'm sure she doesn't need our help."

"The Sith are after Bastila!" Trask explained in irritation. Morii opened her mouth to ask why but Trask interrupted, "So grab your weapons and let's go!"

"Screw that!" Morii told him as she pulled out her blaster and strapped the holster across her hips.

"What?" Trask asked in disbelief.

"I said… _screw that_! You wanna go and be Captain Republic go ahead. I'm getting my ass to the escape pods!" Morii had just finished strapping her vibroblade in its sheath to her back.

Trask grabbed her arm and yanked, "Look you swore an oath to the Republic, soldier or no!"

Morii yanked her arm out of Trask's grasp, pissed. "And that oath didn't include anything about taking on Sith boarding parties or rescuing Jedi's who probably don't need rescued in the first place!" she yelled back and turned to tie on her grenade pouch.

Trask stared at her for a moment and then decided to try a different tactic. "Look, don't be an idiot! There's no way you're to make to the escape pods by yourself. Besides you have to go through the bridge to get to the pod bay."

Morii narrowed her eyes at him. Finally she decided he was telling the truth and rolled her eyes. "Fine, whatever! Let's go save the Jedi."

Trask gave a nod and said, "Good let's go. Stay behind me, I still have orders to protect you." Morii nodded in return and slipped on a small backpack. Yeah she kind of liked Trask, but she tried to avoid being cannon fodder for anyone. The door to their quarters slid open just in time for them to watch a squad of Republic soldiers go down to a Sith boarding party. Trask pumped his blaster once into the air and yelled, "For the Republic!"

Morii rolled her eyes again, "We are so gonna die," she followed after Trask.

* * *

"You almost frelling shot me!" Trask yelled at Morii behind him.

"Sorry! I'm not very good with a blaster! I told you I'm better with a blade!" Morii and Trask had finally managed to take down the Sith troops outside the bridge doors. Okay, mostly Trask had taken them down while Morii sent off wild shots behind him. Most of the Sith she did manage to kill had fallen to grenades. Trask insisted she stay to the rear and wouldn't let her get in close enough to use her vibroblade. At least she had managed to stop closing her eyes when she shot. She hated blasters.

Trask rolled his eyes in response, "The Bridge is close quarters so…"

Morii gave an involuntary feral grin, holstered her blaster and drew her blade out with a _snick_. Trask pulled a blade of his own and moved to one side of the door. Morii moved to the other side and Trask looked over at her, "Ready?" he asked.

"You sure there isn't another way to the pods?" she asked hopefully.

Trask shook his head and grinned despite himself. "Nope," he waved a palm in front of the door panel and the two doors slid apart. They gave each other a nod and swung around into the room and into four waiting Sith troopers.

Morii felt everything melt away as she parried the first trooper. She didn't have to think, she didn't have to worry and every move came instinctively. She could see what stance the Sith was going to make before he started his next attack. She switched to an offensive move and battered his defenses down. The heavier armor of the Sith was unable to compensate for Morii's quicker attacks. One… two… three… her mind counted off the moves before her sword slid into a gap in the armor and the soldier collapsed at her feet. Without hesitation she moved on to the next soldier and repeated the steps. One… two… three… this one was a little quicker but Morii saw an opening and took it. Before the second Sith hit the floor she was on the third. Her mind distantly registered the slice her attacker scored on her torso as she spun around and swung her vibroblade in a wide arc. Everything moved in slow motion in Morii's mind's eye as her weapon slid into the ribs of the Sith in a parody of her own wound. She turned to see Trask drop the fourth as he stared at her.

"You _are_ better with a blade!" he said in wonder.

"Told yah," she said happily as she cleaned off her blade. "Can I keep the knife now?"

Trask chuckled, "Yeah you can keep the knife." He looked down at the blood seeping into the side of her vest. Morii looked as well and that's when the endorphins wound down and the wound registered.

"Oh fracking son of a schutta! Now I'm bleeding too!" Morii said as she winced from the sudden blossom of pain.

Trask dug something out of the knapsack he had picked up a few minutes ago and handed it to her. "Here, medpack," he explained quickly.

"I love medpacks," Morii retuned sincerely. "Thanks," she told Trask while she injected it. The blessed kolto, Seaweed of Wonder spread through her system to dull the pain and slow the bleeding. Morii let out a happy sigh of relief.

A smirk escaped Trask at her reaction. He looked at the disaster area that used to be the _Spire's_ bridge. Trask moved from body to body checking the faces. Morii followed behind and lifted credits and grenades from the corpses. Trask turned back to Morii and made a face when he saw her pilfer the last corpse. "That's disgusting!"

"Hey!" She protested. "Besides it's not like they were going to need it anymore." Morii wasn't a real fan of robbing the dead but she was a realist and planning ahead for when they got off this death cruise. They were going to need money, a lot of money and she didn't feel the need to justify herself to Trask. He'd thank her later when he got to eat.

Trask shook his head, "Bastila's not here."

"What?" Morii cried, "Then where the hell is she?"

Trask thought a moment, "She might have made it to the escape pods…"

Morii kicked a smoking console that let off a shower of sparks, "Well that's just fracking great! All that and no Jedi! Can we leave now?" she looked in irritation at Trask.

Trask sighed, "Yeah, let's get to the pods."

Morii could see he was upset, "Hey," she softened her voice, "she's a Jedi… I'm sure she made it. I mean if they can turn people into gizka…" Morii joked.

That got a laugh out of Trask and he looked back with a smile, "Yeah you're probably right. Let's go." Trask jerked his head toward the doors around the other side of the bridge.

They were almost to the starboard section when Morii stopped. The hairs on her arm shot straight up and she shivered at the sudden cold that enveloped her. Terror locked her joints but something about the sensation was disturbingly… familiar. "Trask, I think we should go another way… I've got a bad feeling about this."

"There is no other way, and what do you mean a bad feeling?" Trask threw back an annoyed look.

"Look my instincts are telling me something bad's about to happen and I've survived this long by listening to my instincts."

"Well this is the only way," Trask waved a hand at the starboard section door. "But let's get a move on," He added to make her feel better.

"Yeah," Morii breathed, "let's… now," Before the two survivors could go through the door the exit on the far side of the room opened. A deathly pale bald man in elaborate black clothes stood on the other side. He looked up and gave them a smile that made Morii shiver as he ignited the twin blades of a red lightsaber.

"Damn," Trask snarled. "Get to the escape pods, I'll hold him off," he muttered out the side of his mouth to Morii.

"Are you nuts?" she hissed back. "That," she pointed at the man in the next room, "is a dark Jedi! You'll get killed!"

"I have my orders, and now you have yours, now GO!" Trask shoved her, _hard_ through the starboard door as it slammed shut and locked.

Morii blinked stupidly at the closed door for a full minute before she said, "Well I'll be a son of a Kath." The damned fool had just thrown himself to the Maalraas! What the hell was he thinking? Morii didn't have time to answer. A red beam of energy pierced through the door with a menacing hum.

Morii let out a girly little "eeep!" noise and she turned and ran for the pod bay. She streaked blindly around the corner and into two Sith troopers, knocking all three of them over into a pile. Rather than wait for the Sith to recover and shoot her Morii jumped off the deck. The grenade she dropped with the Sith made her ears ring and the walls of the corridor vibrate. Morii was positive she could hear a lightsaber hum just behind her. _I don't wanna die! I don't wanna die! I don't wanna die! I haven't seen Coruscant yet! Or the rings of Talravin! I want to have babies! Yes that's it! Lot's and lots of babies and die a nice old lady in my sleep!_ She reached a door, opened it and was confronted with two more Sith troopers.

"Frack me!" Morii cried and then sucked it up and charged right at one of them. She didn't have time to be subtle or smart with the possibility that Big, Bald and Nasty was on her tail. She moved so fast that she managed to cut down the first man before he could put up a fight. The other Sith was around some sort of table though and clipped her left shoulder with a blaster shot before she could move toward him. Morii spun from the shot but again the inner stillness took over and the pain receded, for the moment. She ducked into a semi roll and the next shot from the rifle went over her head. She swung her blade up from a low position, catching the Sith in the arm and causing him to drop the blaster. He cried out in pain as he clutched at the wound with his right hand and Morii sliced the gap between his helmet and torso armor. He gagged and dropped.

Morii felt something on her forehead and wiped at it, coming away with the man's arterial blood smeared on the back of her hand. She looked at the bright red streak and grimaced in disgust, feeling a bit queasy. Force she hated doing this kind of stuff.

The cold slapped Morii in the face again, like it had just before Trask died. She turned her head slowly to look back down the hall. He wasn't there yet, but somehow she knew the dark Jedi was coming. Morii jumped for the door and hit the panel with a shaky hand to close it. Not having time to jam the lock she took out her blaster and shot the controls twice, since she only grazed them the first time.

Morii let out a sigh of relief. A glowing red blade popped out the middle of the door. "Aaah!" she screamed out in shock. "Stop doing that!" she yelled at the red lightsaber light. The blade hummed in response and started to move in an arc up the door. Morii scrambled for the opposite door holding her vibroblade in her right hand and her left arm cradled against her stomach.

Morii was almost to the door when a voice came out of the air. "_This is Carth Onasi. There's a squad of Sith troops in the next room, watch out!_"

Morii screamed again as the voice almost caused her with her frazzled nerves to wet herself.

"_Are you alright?!"_ came the disembodied voice again.

Morii looked back toward the first door and saw that the lightsaber had already cut a quarter of a circle through the metal. Fracking Sith bastard was making a door! "No I'm not alright!" She screamed at the intercom system in the ceiling, "There's dark Jedi on the other side of the other door and he wants in… NOW!"

"_Get the hell out of there!"_ the voice roared.

"I'm open to suggestions!" she screeched back at him with one good flailing arm.

"_There should be a deactivated combat droid in there. Can you reactivate it?"_

Morii looked about the room wildly and saw a droid slumped over by the door to her salvation. She sheathed her blade, ran to it, and almost slipped on the blood of one of the dead Sith. Morii caught herself at the last minute and grabbed at the droid, yanked the chest panel open and started pulling frantically at wires, ignoring the burning pain in her left shoulder as she did so. She took a second to glance over at her entry door and paled as the lightsaber made steady progress around its path, now at almost half a circle. "C'mon… c'mon… work you bastard… _yes_!"

The droid perked up with the whir of gears and the hum of its power core and marched toward the door. The door in the direction of the pods opened and the droid began firing at the seven Sith occupying the room. Morii gave a terrified glance back at the lightsaber. She pulled her melee weapon and used the droid as a shield. Once in the room Morii started cutting at the soldiers in her way. Her one good arm was getting shaky however and she only managed to kill one soldier before the droid mopped things up and killed the second one that was attacking her after the rest of the Sith had gone down.

As soon as they were all dead she ran back the way she had come in just as the Sith Jedi finished making his hole. The large circular chunk of metal fell into the room with a loud thud. The Sith stuck his shiny head through the opening, spotted Morii and grinned. "Come out and play," he said to her in a false sugary voice.

"Frack off, Bantha ass!" Morii yelled and hit the door panel, sending it shut with a whoosh. A blaster shot hit the control and it sparked violently. Morii whipped her head around and saw the Onasi guy standing at the entrance to the escape pod bay with a blaster pistol in hand.

"Come on!" he yelled and jerked his head toward the escape pods. "Everyone else is off the ship or dead!"

Morii ran toward the bay without further prompting. Orange Jacket, or rather Carth Onasi as Morii now knew his name to be thanks to Trask, began punching commands into the lone console in the room. Morii hit the escape hatch button with her good elbow and the air lock opened with a pop. A sizzling noise came from the jammed door and Morii looked up. Once again the red lightsaber was cutting a merry circle through yet another door. "I wish he'd cut that out!" she yelled.

"Forget him, we have to get off here before the Sith blow the ship!" Carth moved up next to her and slid into the pod. "Get in!" He held out his arms to her. There was only one seat and he was in it. Well Morii supposed he was a bit too big to sit in her lap.

Morii ducked into the pod and Carth wrapped his arms tight around her waist as she settled into his lap. Felling the need to assert herself she said, "You try anything and I'll cut off you dangly bits buster."

Carth jerked his head back in shock and then yelled over the sound of the pod blasters firing, "Dream on sister!" The pod shot out of its berth and into the blackness of space.


	4. Crash and Burn Pt 1

The ride down in the pod had been hell. Halfway down the pod hit a large piece of debris and the internal dampening field failed. When Carth realized what had happened he held desperately on to the woman in his lap while she clung to him. The escape pod hull started to vibrate violently as the atmosphere of Taris screamed with friction on the pod shell. Carth could hear the woman shrieking something but couldn't make it out over the noise. As they passed into the planet's sky and the noise lessened he realized she was spouting a rather colorful stream of swear words. Carth knew they would be hitting dirt any minute and wrapped his arms even tighter. He had been pissed when he realized the only pod left was a single but it was that or they both die on the ship.

"Hold on!" he roared to the woman. "This is gonna be rough!"

She tightened her hold and buried her face in his neck. Carth could here a mantra of "frack frack frack frack" coming from her buried head. He would have laughed if he hadn't been so worried about losing his grip at impact or just both of them ending up dead. He grabbed her head to keep the whiplash to a minimum right before the pod crashed. The initial jolt shook the pod until Carth thought it would shatter. They continued at a slide as both occupants screamed in terror. Another impact from the side rocked the escape pod and Carth felt his grasp slip. His co-occupant tried to hang on but her hands were sweaty and cramping and she lost her grip at the jolt. Carth yelled out a "NO!" as he felt the woman slip away from him. Whatever they had hit had slowed their slide and Carth gritted his teeth helplessly as the pod slowed and finally ground to a halt.

As soon as the pod was stationary Carth threw off his restraining harness and jumped up. His fellow escapee was in a crumpled pile on the other side of the small pod. _Please don't let her be dead_, Carth thought as he went to check her. He didn't want to have killed her because he couldn't hold on. Carth saw a pool of blood forming under her head and let out a string of his own curses. Slowly he turned her over onto her back and pushed two fingers into the side of her neck. He let out a relieved sigh when he found a pulse and noted that her chest rose and fell. She was alive and breathing but the right side of her head, face and shoulder were coated in blood. Carth knew head wounds bled a lot but he didn't have time to check her. He was sure the crash would bring rubber-necking bystanders and any Sith who might be in the vicinity.

Carth peeled off his jacket first. Looking out the pod viewport he noted that they had landed on the night side of the planet but the orange color would give him away from twenty feet. He had a black shirt on underneath along with his black trousers which would blend better with the night. He grabbed at the small pack the woman had been carrying and shoved his jacket inside. Carth then pulled a blaster from his holster and hit the hatch control. He ducked his head outside and saw that the walkway was mercifully deserted but he didn't count on it to stay that way for long. Turning back inside, he slung the pack over one shoulder and hauled the woman up over the other. She was no lightweight and draped over him with a solid heaviness. He could feel blood from her head injury seeping through the back of his shirt as he navigated his way out of the pod.

Checking to make sure the way was still clear Carth hopped down. A low groan emanated from his burden at the impact of his boots hitting permacrete and Carth felt a small measure of relief. That was good, wasn't it? Carth's First Aid knowledge was woefully short in that department. He could patch up minor injuries but he didn't know what he was going to do if the woman was seriously injured. First things first he decided. They needed a place to hide. Although the Sith had attacked as soon as the _Spire_ had exited hyperspace there had been enough time to confirm that the Sith had entrenched themselves into Taris. Carth knew that they had a strong presence on the city-planet.

He trotted across the walkway with one arm wrapped around his companion's waist to keep her steady. Many of the buildings around him were dark but he headed toward a light across the courtyard while trying to get his bearings. He came up to an apartment building and the door opened. Carth pulled a blaster and found himself face to face with a small Bothan male. The Bothan raised both hands in reflex when he spotted the gun pointed at him. Carth wasn't sure but the alien didn't seem to be hostile.

You're Republic, aren't you? the Bothan asked in Huttese. Huttese was almost as common as Basic and Carth understood it well and spoke it marginally.

Carth replied with a nod but kept his blaster up.

The Bothan looked from Carth to the woman slung over his shoulder and raised a furry brow. You can hide in here, he indicated the building behind him. Come with me, there are still a few empty apartments left.

And internal debate raged within Carth whether to trust the canine sentient. He could be a Sith or looking to turn them over to the Sith for reward money. It was when Carth began to hear voices raised in the distance but getting closer that he decided he really didn't have a choice. With a nod Carth holstered his weapon and followed the Bothan into the complex. The smaller male led Carth to an elevator and took them up to one of the floors. As they exited the Bothan made a beckoning motion for Carth to follow. He was getting the beginnings of a killer cramp in his neck from the unequal weight of the woman on his shoulder and gave her limp form a hike to readjust. He trailed the Bothan into the corridor until he stopped at a door. The alien pulled a security spike and sliced the lock. When the doors opened the small male went inside with Carth a second behind.

The apartment was run down and dusty, but other than that it wasn't bad. The main room doubled as a sleeping area with two beds on one side, a small eating table with three chairs in the middle and a kitchenette on the far side. There was one door in the room that Carth guessed… or hoped lead to a fresher. He immediately moved over to the closest bed and flung back the dusty covers. The sheets underneath looked clean and Carth slowly lowered his passenger with a grunt. He then dropped the pack he'd been carrying and began to check the woman's head.

There was blood everywhere and Carth couldn't guess at the extent of the injury. He heard water running and turned to find the Bothan male running something under the sink spigot in the kitchenette. He came back to Carth and held out a tattered damp rag. Here, he offered it to Carth.

"Thanks," Carth gave the Bothan a grateful look as he took the rag and began wiping at the blood. The woman's face was turning a sickly gray color and Carth began to feel panic bloom in his chest. _Don't die… don't die… don't die… please let me save one…_ Carth prayed to the Force or whatever Gods might be listening. He wasn't really a religious man but he didn't think he could take loosing one more crew member. After he had shoved Bastila in a pod over her protests of needing to find some advisor or another Carth had ended up trapped in the starboard escape pod bay by a squad of Sith. He had only been able to watch helplessly on the holo security monitors as member after member of the _Spire_ crew dropped dead. Another besides the woman in front of him had made it as far as a couple of rooms outside the pod bay but had been shot down by the Sith soldiers. Thankfully Sith slicers hadn't managed to break into the security system and Carth had been able to keep them out with his security codes.

The woman began to jerk violently and choke. Carth got her rolled onto the side just in time as she vomited onto the floor. "Shavit!" he swore as she continued to convulse after emptying the considerable contents of her stomach. He peeled back an eyelid and noticed one of her pupils looked blown. Not good… oh please don't let her die!

_Medic! Oh Gods… medic! I need a medic!_ Carth pushed the memory violently away as he wiped at the woman's face and cleaned off the vomit. He needed to concentrate on the here and now.

I don't know much about human physiology, the Bothan began but I think your friend needs a doctor. I know one… he offered.

Carth spun around and looked at the dark furry face. "I can't risk the Sith…"

The Bothan raised a hand, He's not fond of the Sith… he has a youngling in the Republic fleet. I think I should go fetch him.

A look of relief and gratitude flooded Carth's face, "Thank you, and please… hurry?"

The alien gave a nod and shot out the apartment door. The woman on the bed began throwing up again. _Please don't die on me…_ Carth told her silently. The woman seized in response and Carth pushed down on her to try and keep her from injuring herself further.

_No… no! Please… somebody… for Force sake MEDIIIIIC!_

"Don't you dare die on me," he whispered furiously.

* * *

Zelka Forn gave the unconscious woman on the bed one last injection and sighed in relief. He turned back to look at the Republic soldier and then Troh the Bothan who had fetched him. Troh had been invaluable in leading Zelka on a route that avoided any Sith patrols on the way from the clinic. He had known the sly Bothan for a few months now and liked him. When Troh had woken him up by banging on his door Zelka had bolted up out of a dead sleep. Troh told him the situation and Zelka had grabbed his medic bag and followed the Bothan into the Taris night.

Zelka sat down on the floor with his back against the bed while avoiding the cleaned damp spot on the carpet where the patient had recently vomited. The Republic captain paced across the room while shooting Doc Forn nervous looks. Zelka gave him a small smile, "I think she'll be alright." The tall man closed his eyes and sighed at Zelka's reassurance. "She's still got a nasty concussion," Forn continued, "so she'll be out of it for a few days. I'll leave some medication and instructions with you and I want you to bring her to my clinic for a final checkup when she's back on her feet."

Carth nodded at the doctor. "I don't have a whole lot of credits…"

Zelka waved him off, "You're money's no good with me, Capitan Onasi." Carth jerked at Zelka recognizing him but Zelka smiled in response. "My daughter served on the _Dire Fate_ in that battle over Nar Shaddaa last year. She had nothing but good things to say about you."

Carth relaxed. The _Dire Fate_ had been his last command until the fleet had pulled him for evaluation. He remembered that battle as a particularly nasty one and one of the first after Malak had gained control of the Sith army. At first Zelka's last name hadn't registered beyond that it matched Admiral Dodanna's first one but now his memory sparked. "Forn…" he began. A burnished cocoa face with laughing green eyes began to form in his mind. Now that he knew who Zelka's daughter was he could see some resemblances. "She was in engineering right?" Carth asked. At Zelka's nod Carth gave a small smile. "The engineering crew actually saved our collective butts in that battle if I remember right."

Zelka let out a chuckle, "Well regardless she had a lot of respect for you. Said you were one of the best commanding officers she had ever served under."

Carth looked away in embarrassment. He had been stupid and reckless in that battle, especially when he found out that Saul himself was the one in command of the Sith armada. Risking his own life was one thing but risking the lives of his crew was inexcusable. That was the battle that had been the last straw and gotten him yanked from command. If it hadn't been for some quick last minute ingenuity by engineering the whole ship would have been destroyed. Zelka's daughter obviously had a mistaken impression of Carth. "Well regardless, Doc, if there's anything I can do for you let me know."

"Bring your friend to me when she wakes up, Capitan, that's all I ask." With a nod Zelka stood and began gathering his things. When he was finished Zelka handed the medication to Carth and gave him verbal instructions on when to administer it. He also left a few spare med packs. Last Zelka handed Carth a few stims saying, "She's going to have a hell of a headache when she wakes up." Forn then gave Troh a nod and the Bothan led him back to his clinic.

Carth sat down on the empty bed after Zelka and Troh left. He looked over at the woman now deeply asleep thanks to the doctor. He had been a surprised when he recognized her in the pod bay as the civvie woman who had slammed into him earlier that day. He studied her face and noted that the color of her skin had improved tremendously from earlier. Her clothes on the other hand were a shambles. There was blood and vomit all over her shirt and vest, and her pants were also bloodied and torn. She was going to need clothes. Carth's back began to itch and he realized that he was going to need a new shirt at the very least. The blood from her head injury had dried and was caked and flaking where it had soaked through to his back. He desperately wanted a shower but wasn't sure it was safe to leave his companion alone. Getting up Carth walked over to the woman and laid a hand on her forehead. She had a slight fever which Zelka had assured him was normal as long as it didn't spike. She made a painful face and let out a low moan as Carth touched her. Deciding she'd probably be alright Carth headed for the fresher.

There was no soap or anything in the shower but Carth had found another worn washcloth and used that as he cleaned the dirt and blood off. His mind was racing with a shopping list of necessities as he finished. He was going to have to leave the woman alone if he was going to get the things they were going to need like clothes and soap. Not to mention other supplies like weapons and med packs. He definitely didn't relish the idea of leaving her helpless and unconscious. Carth had escaped the ship with nothing more than his blasters and the clothes on his back.

After slipping on his trousers Carth exited the fresher and tossed his ruined shirt in a waste bin. He was going to have to clean up his patient as well. He couldn't very well leave her in that state for the next couple of days. He wondered if Zelka had any female assistants he'd be willing to send over to give the woman a spit bath. Carth really wasn't comfortable at the thought of undressing an unknown unconscious woman. It was then that he realized he didn't have a way to contact the doctor. Zelka had left directions to his clinic but not a comm number…frack! The pilot couldn't leave her in this state alone and what if the Sith came by, found her unconscious and figured out she was a survivor of the _Spire_? Frack… again. There was no use for it, he was going to have to bathe her himself.

Carth went digging through cupboards looking for towels and more washcloths. He found one more washcloth and two towels when he had searched every cabinet in the apartment. He supposed he should be thankful. The pilot realized he was stalling as he gazed over at the other occupant of the room with trepidation. _Suck it up, Onasi_, he told himself.

Carth brought his towels, wash bin and a pitcher he had found over next to the bed. He decided to work on her hair first. The cut had actually split her forehead open and as soon as the blood had been washed away Zelka had been able to treat it without having to cut any hair. Still she had bled everywhere and her hair was covered in blood. Carth put the small wash bin under her head. It looked damn uncomfortable but she didn't complain. He then began to untwine the hair tie that had tangled itself in her hair. Finally in disgust Carth grabbed a pocket knife from his boot and cut the tie in two taking a few strands of hair with it. He took the water in the pitcher and poured it over her head.

It took him forever to work the blood out without any soap but he finally managed to get most of it. After removing the basin Carth gingerly wrapped her curly dark hair in a towel to keep the bed from getting further soaked. He was going to have to strip it when he was done regardless but he decided to wait until she was clean. Carth frowned down at her ruined clothes. It would require a lot of shifting of the sleeping woman to get them off and they were ruined anyways. With a sigh he flipped his knife back open and began cutting away at the shirt and pants. As Carth peeled off the clothes he noticed that besides several bruises she had a cut on the side of her stomach and a blaster burn on one shoulder; probably from the battle aboard the _Spire_. The woman was damn lucky she hadn't been injured worse. She must be a good fighter to have come through an entire section of the ship with so little damage. Carth was cheered by this thought. He was going to need the help of someone who could take care of themselves.

The clothes had taken the brunt of the damage and Carth was relieved that the only parts he had to concentrate on cleaning were her neck and shoulder. He also made sure to clean out the wound on her side while carefully avoiding looking at anything… intimate. She was in good shape and attractive. Although well rounded the woman had a toned muscle structure and Carth again thought that she was a lot stronger than she first appeared. He knew from first hand experience that she was certainly heavier. After he finished Carth applied some kolto patches to her other injuries to prevent infection and gave her a med pack for good measure.

At this point he was exhausted but he still had to change the bed. He decided on a compromise and picked her up to move her to the empty bed. He ripped off the dirty sheets and left the mattress bare. Carth heaved her back into his arms and transferred her back. He then took the covers from the empty bed, shook them out and laid them on top of her. Satisfied that she wouldn't get cold Carth took the second bed and passed out as soon as he hit the sheets.


	5. Crash and Burn Pt 2

It was a door chime that woke Carth up. His head shot up at the noise and he looked around the room momentarily disoriented. The memory of the battle and the crash flashed in his mind and he looked to the left to check on his patient. She was sleeping peacefully on the other bed.

The door chime rang again and Carth wiped a hand down his face, grabbed a blaster and headed for the door. He didn't think the Sith would ring the bell but Carth couldn't imagine who had come to see them. He kept the blaster at his side and opened the door to find Troh the Bothan standing on the other side holding a large sack in front of him.

Troh looked from Carth's face down to the blaster next to his thigh. Barring his teeth in what was probably supposed to be a grin he said, Well at least you're not pointing it at me. May I come in?

Carth hadn't expected to see the Bothan again but nodded and held a hand out to the center of the apartment. He watched Troh set his packages on the small table and look over at the woman. Carth closed the door and put his blaster back in its holster. "I want to thank you for last night," he told Troh. "If it hadn't been for your help I'm not sure we would have made it."

It isn't a problem, Troh waved him off. We've had a lot of… refugees since the Taris occupation. This building is filled with them. I brought you some things I thought you might need. Zelka gave me a shopping list as I'm not sure what exactly goes into human grooming.

"Really I appreciate it but you shouldn't…" Carth began awkwardly.

Troh interrupted. As I said it isn't a problem… besides having a Republic captain owe me a favor could come in handy some day. Troh sent Carth a human-like wink and Carth laughed. Troh was a Bothan after all. The species was nothing if not opportunists.

Carth wasn't about to turn away any help he could get at this point although he was a little uncomfortable with charity. He told Troh, "You got it, one Republic captain's favor. Do you mind if I ask you what's going on around here?" he asked as he started digging through the bag. Zelka had given Troh an excellent list. There was soap, shampoo, conditioner, and two combs and a brush. Carth found some various other toiletry items as well as some more med packs, a few more stims and some ration bars. Normally Carth hated ration bars but they looked delicious at the moment. He just about hugged Troh when the smaller male produced another bag and pulled out two cups of caffa.

After Carth gave his roommate her dose of meds and a cursory examination (which involved making sure she wasn't bleeding and checking her forehead for fever) he sat down with his caffa and began grilling Troh on the situation in Taris. Troh had been living in this complex for about six months now gathering information for Spynet. Technically the building was in foreclosure but the man who still owned it was renting apartments to illegal aliens in the Upper City to try and generate funds. Apparently Tarisian law made it illegal for non-human species to reside in the Upper Cities, but like most laws there were ways around it. When the Sith showed up they had taken control of the planet's government, imposed a travel quarantine on the planet and were restricting travel between the Tarisian city levels. This had left a lot of aliens stranded on the planet with no place to go. They couldn't travel down to the Lower Cities but they weren't supposed to stay in the Upper Cities. Troh had stepped up.

Non-humans have to stick together on Taris, Troh frowned. If we don't look out for each other no one else will. So I started breaking open apartments and giving stranded travelers a place to stay. Mostly aliens but we have a few financially strapped humans here as well.

"What does the landlord think of all this?" Carth waved a hand around the room indicating the squatter situation.

Troh gave a low laugh, He doesn't think anything as he doesn't know. He was part of the 223 District council and I believe he's in prison if the Sith haven't killed him. And even if he did know, Troh continued, I'm sure the human citizens would be most displeased to find out he had been allowing aliens to live in the Upper City. Troh then gave Carth a thoughtful look. It isn't normal for human males to go without shirts on, is it?

Carth realized he was still bare chested. "Oh! My shirt was ruined in the crash." He gave a sigh, "Along with my companion's clothes. I guess I'll need to see about finding some."

I could take care of that for you, Troh started. When Carth began to protest that Troh had already done enough the Bothan held up a furry palm, Captain, I don't mind helping. But I do have a way you can pay me back.

Carth raised a suspicious eyebrow. Bothan's were notorious for looking out for their own interests first.

Troh laughed at the look on his face, Don't look so suspicious, Captain. It's not that bad. He handed Carth a data pad. I understand you have a few close friends higher in the chain of command. I need you to pass the information in the data pad on to Admiral Dodonna. There are instructions on it for what she needs to do with the information. I'm already late delivering but things are getting way too interesting here for me to leave. I have a feeling you'll be off Taris long before I will.

"You're here for the Republic?" Carth asked, surprised.

Currently yes, Troh replied.

Carth thought fast. Troh might be just who he needed to find out what had happened to Bastila Shan. Bothan's were infamous spies and information dealers. If anyone could dig up the information Carth was betting Troh could. Finally Carth decided he didn't have much to lose anyways and told Troh about needing to find another survivor of the _Spire_. "I'm sure the Admiral would be appreciative of any help you can give," Carth offered.

Troh rubbed his ebony chin in thought. As long as someone was sure to mention my assistance…

Carth gave him a heavily lidded smile, "I might be able to take care of that…"

Troh laughed, I like the way you think, Captain. It's a deal. Troh held out a hand.

Carth clasped Troh's wrist with his own hand and said, "By the way, the name's Carth."

* * *

Troh left shortly after that to find clothes and information for Carth. Carth dug out his jacket and went to stick the data pad the Bothan had handed him in a pocket. While digging he found another data pad he had forgotten was there. As he pulled it out Carth realized it was the service files of all the civilian contractors on the Spire. He had downloaded them the night the Sith attack happened. The Jedi detachment had added a last minute member and it had piqued Carth's interest. He had been meaning to check it in the morning. It was rather a moot point anyways because as far as he knew the only civvie left was the woman currently asleep across the room. He pulled it out and began scanning the files, looking for his companion's service record.

Finally he found it by her picture attached to the file and began reading through. Her name was Nemorii Vohn and she was listed as thirty two years old. Under special skills was extensive droid programming capabilities along with advanced melee training and demolition skills. _Handy that_, Carth mused. He choked on a swig of caffa when he read; _Extensive translation skills: Known fluent in 236 different languages and dialects._ Wow, that would definitely come in handy. The next bit of the service record made him frown. She had been charged a few times with smuggling illegal contraband although none of the charges had managed to stick and had all been eventually dropped. Carth wasn't too sure about enlisting the aid of a criminal. He looked over at Nemorii Vohn. She didn't look much like a typical smuggler… but she sure had the mouth of one. He grinned while remembering their meeting in the _Spire_ decks, her threatening to castrate him when they launched and her rather inventive phrases on the ride down to Taris.

The last bit was her assignment to Bastila Shan… and the date she had been added to the _Endar Spire's_ duty roster. She was the last minute addition! Carth gave Nemorii another look filled with suspicion. Who was this smuggler and why were the Jedi so interested in her? Something was off here. Why in the Force would the Jedi need a smuggler in their entourage, even one with her skills? Carth glared at the data pad and scrolled again but that was the end of the file. "That's it?" he asked the silent room. This had to be the most incomplete service file he had ever seen. There was nothing on where she had learned her skills, her home planet or what the hell she was supposed to be doing for the Jedi.

Carth threw the data pad on the table in disgust and looked once again at the unconscious Vohn. He needed her help. Even with Troh's assistance he couldn't find Bastila not to mention figuring out how the hell to get the Jedi off of Taris before the Sith got a hold of her. Carth couldn't afford to turn away any allies right now. But he was going to be watching Nemorii Vohn very closely.

Troh showed up a few hours later with some clothes for Carth and Nemorii Vohn, but still no word on any other pods. He assured Carth he had some feelers out but it might take some time for information to start filtering back. Carth put on his new shirt and was happy to see it fit perfectly. He hoped the clothes that Troh had acquired for his companion were as good.

Said companion began to let out a high pitched moan from across the room. Carth looked at the chronometer on the wall and realized she was overdue for her latest dose. He snatched the injector off the table and hurried over to Vohn's bed. She had started thrashing in her sleep and making small noises. Carth pinned her down to the bed, worried she would break the wound in her head open. Vohn started fighting harder and her cries became louder.

"No… no! Get off! Get off!" her voice was high and panicked.

Carth fumbled with the injector and managed to get it up to her neck and sent a stream of medicine into her system.

Nemorii Vohn's flailing slowed and Carth sighed in relief. Before he could get up however Vohn sat straight up with her eyes wide open and grabbed at Carth's shirt. "Therano…why?" Carth froze in shock. Zelka had said she shouldn't wake up for two more days… but as here eyelids fluttered Carth realized she was still asleep but dreaming. She sagged and Carth grabbed at her while the woman made small noises of pain. Must be a hell of a nightmare, he thought. Carth slowly lowered her back onto the bed but she still let out periodic small cries. He didn't want her to start the thrashing again so he did the only thing he could think of.

Carth stroked the tangled mess of her hair back from her forehead and whispered, "Shh, it's only a dream. Everything's okay." To his surprise she relaxed and her face smoothed out. Vohn let out a sigh, went limp and her eyelids stopped moving.

As soon as Carth was sure she wasn't going to move again he got up and ran a shaky hand through his hair. It had been a long time since he had comforted someone having a nightmare. The memory jumped up unbidden before Carth could fight it off.

"_Hey, kiddo, its okay it was only a dream."_

"_I don't want you to go! You can't go! Something bad will happen!"_

_Carth sighed, "We discussed this, kiddo. I have to go… you know that." He brushed the sleep tousled hair back from the twelve year old boy's face._

"_No something bad will happen! Please don't go this time, Father!"_

"_You know I can't do that, Dustil. I'm needed and I can't just abandon my duty. Don't worry, nothing bad will happen to you here. You and your mom will safe at home… okay? Now you need to go to sleep." Carth hated this part and most times he hated himself the most. It was always like this when his leave was about to end, although nightmares were a new tactic for Dustil._

_Dustil reluctantly settled back into the covers. As Carth got up to leave the bedroom his son called out, "Father?"_

"_Yeah, kiddo?" Carth turned back and girdled himself for another argument._

"_If something does happen… do you promise you'll come back?" Dustil's eyes were round and pleading as he stared up from his bed._

_Carth smiled and gave a nod. "You can bet on it, kiddo… I promise."_

_Dustil relaxed and gave Carth a small smile, "Okay. Goodnight, Father."_

"_Goodnight, son," Carth turned off the light and left._

Carth's hands had clenched into fists and his breath rasped harshly in and out of his chest. He stood there for a moment desperately trying not to lose it. After a moment he began to calm, pushing the memory and everything else back to the seething pit where he kept it. That place where Carth contained all of his rage and hate, waiting for the right time to release it. That place where once face never left… the place where the face of his uncle lived. The pain began to fade as he shoved it back where it belonged.

Carth noted the apartment could use cleaning. He grabbed a washcloth and the soap and got to work.

* * *

Carth didn't see Troh for the rest of the day. He spent it cleaning and occasionally administering meds to his roommate. There wasn't much else to do as the room didn't even have a holonet connection. The only other thing he had to occupy his time was dealing with the nightmares his companion seemed to chronically suffer from. After he gave Vohn her last dose for the day Carth decided to go to sleep. He was still beat and there wasn't much else to do.

Vohn woke Carth up twice in the night with her thrashing and cries. Despite his exhaustion he could sympathize. Carth had quite a collection of nightmares of his own. He slept later than he planned the next morning. Carth got up, showered and made some of the caffa that Troh had kindly brought with the supplies yesterday. He munched down a protein bar unenthusiastically and gave Vohn her dose of meds and then waited.

Finally Carth became disgusted with just sitting around. The apartment was as clean as it was going to get and there was nothing else to do. After giving Vohn her latest dose of medicine he decided to check out the building. After all he wouldn't be too far away from his patient and he was going stir crazy just sitting and waiting for something to happen.

The apartment complex was bustling with its recent influx of refugees. He made small talk trying to fish around for info on his own but didn't learn anything more than he already knew. He did find a Twi'lek selling goods to the residents but his prices were ridiculous. Carth used some of the credits he had scavenged from Vohn's pack and inwardly winced as he paid way too much for some food, but he was damn sick of ration bars.

Carth went back to the apartment and had just sat down to eat when he heard voices yelling through the poorly sealed window of the apartment. Curious he got up and moved the curtain slightly. He felt fear stab at him when he saw Troh outside being harassed by a Sith patrol. Troh looked to be doing his best to talk his way out of it but the Sith weren't moving. When Carth saw them grab the Bothan he bolted out of the apartment.

Carth raced to the elevator and pushed the button for the ground floor muttering, "Come _on_!" at the slow lift. The elevator finally came to rest at street level and he raced toward the building entrance. He got outside and ended up in a group of aliens and a few humans talking nervously but… no Troh. The only thing Carth saw was a lone Sith trooper talking to the crowd.

"Move along!" the Sith barked. "This doesn't concern you. Now leave the area before we take you all in for loitering!"

Carth hung back a bit as the group dispersed. Grabbing at an old human man he whispered, "What happened?"

The weathered man scowled and said, "The bastards took Troh away for questioning." He shook his head sadly. "He was pretty decent for a Bothan." The man made his way into the apartments.

Carth stood for a moment and glared at the Sith soldier. The soldier swaggered over with his rifle held against his chest. "Move _along_… citizen."

Carth fought down his anger, spun on a heel and headed back into the complex.

Carth took off his jacket as he entered the apartment and threw it at one of the table chairs in frustration. He knew for a fact that he'd never see Troh again. The Sith interrogation techniques were not gentle by any stretch of the imagination. He paled as he realized that Troh might tell the Sith about Carth and where he was hiding under torture. Carth was relieved he hadn't given Troh Bastila's name.

It was at this point Vohn began thrashing in her sleep again. Carth cursed and got out the meds. He pinned her down and gave the woman her shot. Carth sank down on the floor as Vohn stopped her jerking. As he stared at her he ran a worried hand through his hair. "You'd better wake up soon, sister," he told the unconscious woman.

* * *

It was several hours later when the door chime to his apartment rang. Carth had been exercising, unable to sit still and having nothing to do. He really wished he had a punching bag to take his frustration out on. Getting up Carth picked up a blaster went up to the door and asked, "Yes?"

"I have something for you," an annoyed male voice said from the other side.

"What is it?" Carth asked.

"It's a data pad, open the Force damned door!" The owner of the voice sounded bored and cranky.

Suspicious, Carth countered, "Leave it outside the door."

"Fine… whatever! I don't get paid enough to be an errand boy." The last bit was muttered as Carth heard the footsteps of his visitor fade down the hall.

Carth waited a moment before opening the door. When he decided it was as safe as it was going to get he unlocked the door and swiped up the data pad. He looked up and down the hall but didn't see any sigh of the deliverer. Carth headed back into the apartment and sat down at the table.

Carth gave the pad a wary look but turned it on and saw a single phrase scroll across the screen:

_How many doses of the anti-inflammatory should be administered on the second day_?

Carth gave the data pad a surprised look. It could only be from Zelka. Carth punched in the answer. A second prompt asking for his last command came up. Carth answered and a third question about how long he had been Taris. Carth answered these, the screen prompt blinked for a moment and then the pad filled up. Carth began reading. The message was from Troh.

_I have been followed most of the day now so I am sorry I was not able to gather more information for you. I have a feeling I shall be arrested before too long so I have left this message in Zelka's keeping just in case. I trust him… as much as I trust anyone._

_I have found that your pod is the only one that fell into the Upper Cities. You got lucky, human. From what I have been able to learn all of the others that made it to the planet punched right through the city levels into the Under City. If your friend is still alive they are most likely there. Be warned the Under City is extremely dangerous. If you manage to find your way down there, go heavily armed as there are various dangers down in the depths of Taris._

_I have no doubt that like most Republics you are blaming yourself right now for my capture. Please don't flatter yourself. The Sith have been watching me since they came to Taris and that scrutiny has only intensified since your ship arrived. It comes with what I do. I would also assure you that your secret is safe with me. I am well trained in resisting interrogation techniques of all kinds but if worst comes to worst I have made arrangements to make sure my secrets are kept. The Sith will not get any information from me and they will not find you. Take care, human, and don't forget to deliver my data pad._

The data pad blinked once and the screen went black. After a moment the message of _Data Pad is currently empty_ came across.

"Thanks, Troh" Carth murmured softly to the data pad.


	6. Clothes Make the Woman Pt 1

_A haze clouded everything in the dark room. It was some sort of Ship Bridge, one that belonged to a big ship. A young pretty woman wielded a yellow lightsaber in ferocious hacks and slashes. The woman had a look of grim determination on her face. I watched the scene impassive as the statuesque brunette battered a Dark Jedi's defenses, the pigtails of her complicated hair style flailed from her actions. Finally the Jedi sent a fatal stab through her opponent and the black cloaked man fell dead at her feet. I gave a smirk as I gazed upon the Jedi's face. The young Jedi brought her lightsaber up in a guard as she stared back at me. She putting on a brave face but I could taste her fear as she tensed her muscles. I felt my smile bloom in to a grin as I realized that this one might actually pose a challenge. _

* * *

Morii jerked awake and out of the dream. She groaned and then shut her eyes again as needles jabbed into her skull. She raised her right palm and pressed the heel against her forehead in an effort to dull the awful agony.

"How do you feel?" a voice asked.

Morii groaned, "You really don't want an answer to that."

Morii felt someone sit next to her on the bed. The owner of the voice continued, "Well you've been in and out of it for almost three days, but don't worry, your safe."

Morii cracked an eye open and looked at the man seated next to her, "Oh, it's you."

Carth snorted, "Don't sound so pleased. I'm Carth by the way; I was in the pod with you."

"Morii," she returned. "Right I remember you; I threatened to cut of your manhood right?" Morii was still a little confused. How did she get to a bed? Worse where the hell were her clothes? Morii was laying between the sheets in nothing more than a bra and panties. Maybe he had…

"Yeah I remember that bit vividly," Carth gave a low chuckle. "Don't worry your virtue is safe, unconscious puking women aren't really my thing."

"Puking?"

"You had a bad head injury, a really bad one but you've been doing better since yesterday."

Morii opened both eyes now and squinted at him, "Where are we?"

"We're in the 223 district of Upper Taris in an abandoned apartment. When the pod crashed you slammed your head against the wall, but luckily I wasn't really hurt." Carth tilted his head. "I managed to drag you away from the crash site and get you to this apartment building before the Sith showed up."

Morii slowly sat up and gave him a thoughtful look. It wasn't everyone who'd risk their neck for a stranger. Hell she's not sure she would have done it. "I guess I owe you my life… thanks," she gave him a small shaky smile.

Carth looked away, stood and walked across the dilapidated room, "You don't have to thank me, I've never abandoned anyone on mission, and that's not about to change now. Besides," he turned back to look at her, "I'm going to need your help."

_Ahh_, Morii thought, _and that would be the sound of the other shoe dropping. Charity my ass_. "Oh I'm just a popular girl with the fleet this week," Morii rolled her eyes. "What are you talking about?"

Carth ran a nervous hand through his hair. He had to convince her to help him; Carth knew he wouldn't be able to do this alone. She was a civvie, but she was all he had, and Carth _had_ to find Bastila; the Republic was depending on her and because of that the Republic was depending on him. So he told her about the planet-wide quarantine the Sith had imposed on Taris, that he had seen Bastila off on an escape pod, and that by all accounts it had ended up in the Tarisian Undercity.

Morii sighed, "What is it with you Republic guys and this hard-on for Bastila?"

"_What!?_" Carth stared at her in shock.

"First Trask, and now you," Morii switched to a false deep voice. "We have to get to the bridge! We have to rescue Bastila!" Morii changed back to her normal voice. "What is she like the most incompetent Jedi in the Order or what?" Morii knew she was being a schutta but she was hurt, stranded, and hungry. She really didn't feel like playing good little recruit for the Republic Pretty Boy.

Carth stared back at her like he didn't know whether to laugh or yell. Morii didn't really pay it any mind as she tended to get that reaction a lot.

Carth chose to be diplomatic and was rather proud for keeping his temper in check. "That smack to your head did more damage than I thought." Morii snorted in response, but Carth ignored it and continued, "Bastila has the ability of Battle Meditation, an ability that is crucial to the Republic war effort. If she falls into the hands of the Sith… well the rest of the war's going to be real short and not in a good way."

Morii rubbed her eyes, "You know, Carth, she may be dead. Or hell she may have already been captured by the Sith." _That's me, Morii Vohn, the shatterer of all fleet boys' dreams_.

"If she had been caught by the Sith they would have lifted the quarantine. Bastila's young and she has a powerful command of the Force…"

"And yet she constantly needs rescuing," Morii butted in. She hadn't even met this woman and she already resented her.

"Look," Carth's irritation was beginning to show, "she going to have half the Sith fleet looking for her. We can move more easily around the planet, which is a luxury she won't have. I for one would rather work on the assumption that she's alive until proven otherwise. The alternative isn't worth thinking about. We can't let her get into Sith hands." Carth turned to stare out the window, "I've heard the stories about Sith interrogation techniques. They say the Force can do terrible things to a person's mind… that it can wipe away your memories and even destroy your very identity."

"They also say it can turn people into gizka," Morii mumbled. She leaned back on her lower arms while half sitting on the bed. Damn! She already knew she was going to say yes. Despite the fact that some of his motives may have been a bit selfish, the guy had saved her life. Plus he was giving her pleading looks with those big whiskey colored eyes. They were nice eyes. Morii supposed dying for a pretty face was as good a way to go as any. Maybe to ensure her future health she should avoid the eyes and start staring at his jacket. "What the hell," she muttered as she flopped back down on the bed, "it's not like I've got anything better to do." Morii popped back up and winced briefly in pain. "But I want a bonus if we find her. Jedi tracking was not in my contract."

Carth rolled his eyes, "Don't worry," he said with sarcasm, "the fleet pays its mercs very well."

"They'd better, I haven't been awake and working for you guys for a full day and I've almost been killed several times. No wonder the fleet can't keep people."

Carth closed his eyes and wished for patience. He rather thought he liked her better unconscious.

* * *

"Cantina," Morii said firmly.

"Cantina?" Carth gave her a look.

"Cantina," she said again and nodded her head. "Everyone knows all the good gossip is in the cantina, besides I'm hungry." They were walking along the Upper City walkways and discussing their next move.

After a shower the first thing Morii had done after they left the apartment was to drag Carth into a shop and spend some of her hard pilfered credits from the _Spire_ dead. Her clothes had been ruined from a combination of the crash and her bleeding all over them. Carth had picked her up some but… well the only nice thing she could say about them is they were the right size. He got minor brownie points for that. When she asked him for clothes he handed her an extremely tight grey jumpsuit and an icky little red jacket. On the plus side he had also gave her some sort of stim which magically whisked away the headache beating against Morii's temples. She had looked from the clothes to Carth in shock and disgust. Maybe the man really was fashion impaired or something.

Morii put on the horrid outfit only to not be arrested for being naked in public until she found a store. She marched directly in and started shopping. Carth huffed and brooded the whole time while Morii ignored him as she browsed the racks. She was not going to be seen in public in that thing any longer than absolutely necessary. The two of them together looked like the Fashion Challenged Twins. Carth hadn't liked it when she informed him of her observation. Morii felt rather good when she found some clothes that were cheap, functional and not fugly. She was now in tan trousers, a soft gray long-sleeved shirt that made her want to snuggle into it and another fitted vest, black this time. She also picked up a spare shirt and a couple changes of underwear.

Then Carth returned the favor and promptly dragged Morii to a free clinic to have her looked over by a doctor. Morii really didn't like clinics and she wasn't too keen on doctors either. She tried getting out of it first by arguing, then browbeating, and finally with flirting until Carth threatened to pick her up and carry her if she didn't cooperate. She reluctantly followed him into the clinic, pouting and walking as slow as possible until Carth grabbed her wrist and started dragging her along. The doctor's name was Zelka and Carth appeared to be on semi-friendly terms with him. When Doc Zelka had told them about the rakghoul disease that plagued the Under City Morii and Carth shared a nervous look. Mutant monsters that killed anything they came across, right in Jedi ground zero. Carth chose to remain optimistic however. Morii wondered if he was delusional on top of supposedly crazy.

"You're hungry…" Carth started at Morii's statement as they walked to the cantina, his hands were shoved in the pockets of his jacket and his body language was closed off. Morii decided to try being friendly.

"Well yeah!" Morii gave him a surprised look, "aren't you?"

"Not really," Carth's answer was sardonic.

"Well I haven't eaten for what, three day's? Hell, I'm staving to death." Morii flung out her arm dramatically.

"Somehow I doubt that," Carth gave her a frown.

Morii grinned at him, "How would you know?" and with that thought Morii entered the cantina. Carth looked up at the sky with a long sigh and wondered why exactly the Force had saddled him with only this woman for help. He reluctantly followed her into the bar.

He found Morii standing just inside and looking around her in interest. Morii was trying to get a feel for the place but got distracted when her stomach let out a loud rumble. A blond woman draped all over some guy playing pazaak giggled as she looked over at Morii and Carth.

"Wow," Carth said, "you really are hungry."

"Told yah, c'mon let's grab a table," and she walked off further into the building. They found a table, had their orders taken and sat watching the other people in the bar. It was probably one of the most boring cantina's she had ever seen. The music was bad, the colors were bland with earth-tones, and even the other patrons looked bored. Turning back to her new partner Morii decided to get to know Carth a little better by asking about him when their food arrived.

"Me?" Carth looked up in surprise. He set down his fork and sat back in his seat. "Well I've been a pilot with the Republic for years. Before the war with the Sith I was in the Mandalorian Wars and I thought I'd seen it all, but even the Mandalorians weren't as brutal as the Sith have been. I'm just a soldier, I got where the admirals tell me." Carth shrugged and picked the fork back up.

Morii quirked an eyebrow at him, "And that's it? That's all there is to Carth Onasi?

Carth shrugged again, "That's it I'm pretty boring."

"Bantha shit," Morii said.

"What?" Carth's head jerked up from his plate.

"Bantha shit," she said again. "C'mon, Carth, we're probably going to be stuck with each other for weeks, and nobody's that boring. What are your hobbies? What are you likes? What gets on your nerves? What…?"

"You want to know what get's on my nerves?" Carth interrupted, "Nosy people who don't know when to stop asking questions!" His eyes were narrowed and he was jabbing his finger at Morii across the table.

Morii jerked back at his voice, and then she glared right back at him. "And you know what, you Republic mouthpiece? You can take your search for Bastila and stick it up your keister! It was a simple question, you jerk! I don't need this crap. I'm so outta here!" Morii threw down her fork and was so mad she stood up and began to walk away with out grabbing her food. Screw him! He could go find his Jedi without her! She was just trying to be friendly for Force sake.

_Oh frack_! Carth thought. He realized he had overreacted and pissed her off. "Hey no, wait," he stood up from his chair. Morii paused while shooting him dirty looks over her shoulder. "You're right, I'm sorry. It's just… well I'm not used to talking about myself much, well at all actually. Please come back… you still have your lunch." Carth said the last bit hopefully. "Please?"

Morii glared at him, sighed and to her utter astonishment found herself walking back to the table. _You're asking for trouble girl_, her internal voice warned. _This one's going to get you into a heap of it. Shut up_, she told the inner voice harshly.

Morii sat down with a plop, picked up her fork and proceeded to stab her unidentifiable meat. Carth felt a smile begin. She was actually throwing a temper tantrum. Carth kept the observation to himself as he watched her dominate her lunch with a grin on his face. When he started to chuckle she looked up and shot him a dirty look, "What?" she asked in irritation.

Carth smiled and shook his head, "Nothing, so what do you want to know?"

To Morii's surprise her anger faded at the brilliant smile he shot her and she gave a hesitant lopsided one back, "Oh I don't know, tell me something personal…"

Carth thought for a minute and said, "My home planet, Telos, was one of the first planets attacked by the Sith after Revan and Malak defected." Carth's voice had gone quite. "They completely destroyed the surface and killed millions."

Morii had already know this, but kept that bit of info to herself. There was no need for Carth to know he was part of the _Spire's_ gossip network. "I'm very sorry, Carth."

He shrugged as if it didn't bother him to talk about it. Morii could tell there was more to the story, there usually was but decided to let it go for now. Carth looked over the table at her and raised his brows, "So… tit-for-tat, where are you from?"

Morii smiled, "Originally, or recently?"

Carth gave her an amused look, "Let's start with originally."

"Originally I'm from Deralia," Morii took a bite of her food and made a happy noise.

"Never heard of it," Carth responded.

Morii gave a single bark of laughter after she swallowed, "Well I'm not surprised, it's in the middle of absolutely-frackin'-nowhere. In fact I think that's the actual hyperspace coordinates for the planet; Absolutely-Frackin'-Nowhere. Deralia's way out in the Outer Rim."

"Deralia… Deralia…" Carth murmured as the name jogged a memory, "Deralian Wine?"

Morii nodded with a full mouth, swallowed again and said, "Yup, made from Deralian grapes. Deralia's the only place that's been found where those damn things will grow, and on Deralia they'll grow anywhere. The bastards are like weeds." She waved the waitress over and ordered another drink.

"Is that what your family does? Grow grapes?" Carth asked.

Morii snorted, "A shaved tach could grow grapes on Deralia, but no my family doesn't do anything… being dead and all," Morii stared very hard at her plate.

Carth's mouth pulled down in sympathy, "Oh, I'm sorry. I ah, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."

Morii hiked up a shoulder, "Hey like you said, tit-for-tat. Kinda like you I just don't talk about it much. Couldn't we have just discussed our favorite holos?" she gave him a wry smile.

Carth returned it with a low laugh, "That probably would have went better."

After lunch Morii suggested they mingle. Rather Morii mingled and Carth glared at everyone and everything in suspicion from the bar. The man had no people skills. Morii wandered from room to room getting into trouble and having a blast. Some guy kept hounding to get her to give him twenty credits to meet some crappy band, she pissed off some spoiled little rich schutta, she taunted the guy who had just lost in the dueling ring and then she hit the jackpot.

Morii met Yun. Yun was a Sith officer. Yun thought Morii was very pretty and as the conversation progressed Yun turned out to be very helpful. Yun informed her that only Sith were allowed to travel back and forth between the Upper and Lower Cities. She chatted up this Yun guy for a good hour, flattering and buttering him up until the man gave her an invite to a party tomorrow night before he had to leave for his shift. He had also been kind enough to share the fact that the party started right after he and his friend's got off shift, which meant there'd be oodles of Sith uniforms just lying around for the taking. That might be her and Carth's best bet for getting access to the lower levels. She had to admit he wasn't a bad guy; at least he hadn't tried to grope her.

Carth sat at the bar and watched Morii in amazement. She just started going up to people and talking to them. What utterly astonished Carth though was that they would start talking back like they had known her for years. While Carth was at the bar, a redheaded woman named Sarra or something like that approached Carth and started to hit on him. Frankly all he wanted was to be left alone. Carth tried being nice to the woman, he tried telling her that he was here with a girl, and finally he told her he was gay and not interested. She left in a huff.

Carth tapped his fingers on the bar top as he watch Morii charm yet another helpless victim. This one was a pasty, pointy nosed man that she had been talking with for almost an hour. Carth was getting irritated and wanted to get a move on. He hated waiting, and he really hated sitting around and doing nothing. Finally Morii got up and moved back toward Carth as the pointy faced man left with a dazed smile on his face.

Morii plopped down on the stool next to him and smirked, "Having a good time?"

"No," Carth answered. "Are we done here?"

Morii gave him a wide grin, "Oh yeah were done, as soon as you buy me a drink."

"And why exactly am I buying you a drink?" his voice was cautious.

"Because I got us invited to a party."


	7. Clothes Make the Woman Pt 2

Morii blew up at the stray curls on her forehead in frustration. Man, Carth was ticking her off! They were leaving the cantina as they argued about the party. Finally she stopped and poked him in the chest, "Look, do you want to find Super Jedi or what?"

"Of course I do, but we are not going to a Sith party!" Carth threw his hands out.

"As long as you don't burst into singing the Republic Anthem it'll be fine," She assured him.

"I don't party with the Sith, I kill them," he said with a hiss and jaw clenched.

Morii gave him a surprised look. Wow he had anger issues, "Have you tried taking medication? You have some serious anger issues."

"What? We are talking about the Sith! Not my anger issues!"

Morii cocked her head at him, "I think you should try meditating or something before the party tomorrow, it'll help with that." She started walking again. "So you admit you have anger issues…"

Carth lengthened his stride to catch up, "I have had enough people poking around into my head thank you very much. And we are not going to the party."

Morii shrugged, "Fine, I'll go by myself."

"You can't do that!" Carth looked at her appalled.

Morii returned it with wide eyes, "Why not?" she then smirked and gave him a playful punch in the shoulder. "Aw, don't worry, Carth, I'm a big girl… I can dress myself and everything." She continued on a more serious note, "Maybe it's better if you don't come anyways. You're liable to blow it."

"I'm sure you can take care of yourself just fine," Carth relented, "but you can't go into an apartment filled with Sith by yourself. You need someone to watch your back."

"Oh good!" Morii gave him a bright smile that just radiated feigned innocence. "So you are going to come."

Carth drug a hand down the side his face, "I suppose I am." He was enough of a strategist to know when he was beat.

"Oh look a store!" Morii exclaimed and pointed to the left.

"Please, by all the Gods no more shopping," Carth said vehemently.

"Not even for…" Morii's eyebrows waggled, "weapons?"

Carth couldn't help but laugh at her. "Weapons I'll actually shop for."

They turned toward the store when three Rodians and a Tarisian noblewoman from the cantina exited from the shadows, "I told you I would make you regret talking to me that way!" the human woman snarled at Morii.

"Ah, hey! Right I remember you," Morii held up her hands in a placating gesture and took a step back which bumped her into Carth. Carth reached down and put a hand on each of his blasters. Morii continued, "I don't suppose we could settle this over a drink? My treat?"

The strange woman stuck out her lip in a pout, "You were mean to me," she whined. "No one is mean to me, I have lots of money you know!" she informed them in an angry voice.

"Too bad it can't buy you a personality," Morii said before she could stop herself.

The girl's mouth dropped open at the insult, "Get them!" she screeched at her thugs, "Kill them!"

Morii rolled her eyes at the stupidity of shooting off her mouth like that and reached over her back to pull her blade. Behind her Morii could hear the leather of Carth's holster sigh as he pulled his blasters. She moved toward the closest attacker and parried his blow, sending out her foot to connect between his legs. Luckily the Rodian was male, Morii never could tell until they spoke. The male Rodian howled and fell to his knees, clutching his offended equipment. Carth had dropped another one with a few shots as Morii moved onto the third. She blocked a third strike when a smoking hole appeared in the middle of the sentient's forehead and the body collapsed to the ground.

The young woman who had originated the attack screeched, "Daddeeee!" and ran off into the growing dusk. Morii started to chase after her when Carth grabbed her arm.

"Let her go, it's not worth the attention," Carth shook his head at Morii. The woman had run off into the street and was surrounded by various citizens and the occasional Sith ambling about.

"Damn!" Morii did stop, then cleaned and re-sheathed her weapon. "If I ever see her pointy, narrow little butt again I'm going to pummel it!"

"I'll help you," Carth frowned into the crowd where the woman had vanished. "We have another issue right now," he then turned to the last Rodian who was rolling around on the ground groaning while trying to find his genitalia.

Morii shrugged, "We could just kill him, then no issue."

Carth looked back in shock, "He's unarmed!"

"Yeah, he's less likely to kill us," she observed.

"I don't kill helpless people!" he protested.

"Okay," Morii gave another one-shouldered shrug, "I'll do it."

"What!? No!" Carth protested. "You can't be serious! He's _unarmed_," Carth repeated.

"Alive he's a potential threat," Morii argued. It made sense perfect sense to her. The Rodian had attacked them, leaving him alive meant he could attack them again. In fact after what had just happened Morii reasoned he had more reason to attack them a second time. "It's one more person to watch out backs against."

"Absolutely not!" Carth said. The Rodian had recovered enough to watch the back and forth of their conversation with growing fear. "We are not killing him," Carth glared at Morii.

Morii sighed, "Alright fine, have it your way. I'll bet we're going to regret this though." She then walked over to the prostrate Rodian, picked up his discarded vibroblade and held the weapon to the male's throat. Carth made a move to stop her when Morii leaned in and spoke to the male. "Don't look so scared," she said just above a whisper. "You get to live, but there's a toll. All of your money and valuables." The Rodian trembled as Morii's other hand grabbed at his collar and jerked him forward, "Fork it over."

Carth watched the exchange with a sick feeling as the Rodian dug into his pockets and emptied them out while Morii held the blade to his throat, never wavering.

Finally the sentient stopped and stammered, "/That's it! I swear! Please… let me go?"/

Morii pulled back her weapon and gave a shove to send him off and felt a bit light-headed. Where in the hell had that come from? She had felt an almost overwhelming wave of anger, even hate come over her as she mugged the would-be killer. Morii felt dizzy from the aftermath.

The Rodian limped off as fast as he could move, desperate to get away from the crazy humans. There's no way a measly hundred credits was worth this! He was going to find his brother in the Lower Cities and take that job repairing swoop bikes after all.

Morii watched him run off and then began scooping up the credits as Carth stood over her in silent shock. She gathered up the stuff she had gotten off of the Rodian and without looking back said, "Let's get some weapons," as she headed toward the shop.

* * *

Their shopping experience was tense as Carth watched Morii like she might go homicidal again and attack the shop owner. Morii chose to ignore Carth and chatted up the woman who ran the store. She was uncomfortable with the heat of the anger that had come over her. It seemed so alien to her and yet… familiar at the same time. Morii was generally of the 'live and let live' philosophy. Even when attacked she liked the 'run away before they shoot me' philosophy better than sticking around. Plus she was aware that Carth was staring at her like she'd suddenly sprouted another head. It made her feel embarrassed about the mugging, but she wasn't going to let the pilot know it. She'd certainly done worse. Despite the tension that ran between the two of them Morii managed to get a lot of dirt on the local Lower City as well as some low-grade armor for both her and Carth, partly due to her recent mugging. Carth added some hard to come by blaster upgrades to the pile when Morii spotted something on a shelf behind the woman.

"Hey, is that a permacrete detonator?" Morii asked.

"Yeah," the shopkeeper nodded, "you want it?"

"Sure," Morii was unsure what she would use it for but it was cool and would make a big explosion. One could never have too many explosives and permacrete detonators were hard to come by. The woman had a droid retrieve the item. They left the shop laden down with their purchases and headed back to the apartment in silence while giving any Sith patrols a wide berth.

They had just about reached the door to the apartment building when Morii couldn't take the silence between them anymore. She paused at the entrance and said, "Carth… wait."

Carth turned and gave her a careful neutral face.

"I…" _frack!_ Morii thought. "I'm sorry about earlier. I don't know what got into me; I guess I'm just a little freaked out. I'm… sorry," she ended lamely.

Carth's posture relaxed, "It's alright. I'm a little freaked out myself and I haven't been the ah… best company. I know you're not a soldier and I guess I shouldn't expect you to act like one. Just, let's not kill any unarmed civilians, okay?" he gave her a brilliant one-sided smile. The fact that she had been a smuggler before joining the fleet wasn't the best of recommendations to him, but he couldn't find Bastila alone. He needed help. Right now Morii was the only help he had so he decided to drop the issue rather than risk driving her off.

Morii smiled back, "I think I can handle that, deal." _That smile should come with a warning label_, she mused. She held out her free hand and Carth took it into his. He was a bit surprised at how nice it felt. Morii's grip was strong and sure with long tapered fingers that clasped his. He could feel the raised roughness of the calluses on her palm as they scraped against his.

Carth realized he was still holding her hand when he dropped it abruptly, with a touch of embarrassment. He was surprised to see the beginnings of a blush color her cheeks as she looked away and let a nervous smile slip.

"Well," Morii said to cover her own discomfort, "I don't know about you but I've had just about all the excitement I can stand for one day."

Carth cleared his throat as he watched her look away, surprised at his own reaction. She was pretty enough, although her face was a bit odd. Morii's nose was a bit too short and wide for her face, and she had a slight overbite which gave her lips a perpetual pout. Her eyes were probably the most striking thing about her. The color was really too light and seemed to shift from an icy blue to a light hazel, and they tilted up just a tad at the corners. It made one look at her, trying to decide what exactly about her was attractive, and the more you looked at her, the more attractive she became. Morii also had a killer figure with curves in the right places and toned muscle that moved underneath. Carth cleared his throat again and decided that he was suffering from depravation. He tended to avoid physical contact until his needs overcame him, and then Carth looked for a single night; something with no strings or attachments when it was all over. "Yeah," he responded, "I know what you mean."

Carth followed her into the building while enjoying the view. _I'm just watching her to make sure she doesn't try anything stupid_, he told himself as watched her rear sway. _Right, Onasi, tell yourself another one_. Still, sleeping with Morii was out of the question. They had to work together and it would undoubtedly complicate things, it always did. Morii waited for him at the elevator and they headed up to their floor. The doors slid open and they continued down the hall in a silence that had become uncomfortable for a different reason.

The look Carth had given Morii hadn't gone unnoticed. She mused that it was only natural. They had been thrown together into a dangerous and difficult situation and it was bound to breed tension of other kinds. Yeah she thought Carth was pretty cute, if a bit of a pain in the ass but there was no way in hell she was going to sleep with him. He'd probably turn all guy on her… start bossing her around and trying to tell her what to do. Wouldn't be the first time it had happened. Morii's train of though paused as she remembered the last time it had happened. She shied away from it, unwilling to start picking at that particular wound.

"Alright you alien scum, up against the wall for an inspection!" The hostile voice stopped Morii and Carth in their tracks. Morii gave an internal groan when she spotted the source. There was a Sith officer backed up by two battle droids right in their path. Carth paused next to her and they gave each other a nervous look as the Sith shoved a female Duros up against the wall. "This is a raid! There've been a large number of Sith uniforms turning up missing recently." The man shoved another Duros against the wall, but this one turned back around.

"/We don't have any uniforms!/" the Duros protested. "/You Sith are always coming here and bothering us and taking away our family members, why do you keep harassing us?/"

"/Quiet Ixgil!/" the first Duro hissed at him.

Without a word the Sith pulled a blaster and shot the protesting Duros in the back of the head. "Anyone else have something to say?" he gave the assembled aliens a menacing smile while standing over the Duros corpse.

The female Duros gave Morii and Carth a pitiful look and Carth started to step forward when Morii caught his arm, "Carth what the hell are you doing?" she hissed.

Carth looked at her, "We can't just stand here!" he whispered back.

"Low profile, remember?" Morii widened her eyes at him in warning.

Carth's own eyes darted back and forth indecisive, when the decision was made for them. "Humans here?" the Sith asked rhetorically as he turned toward them. "They must be Republic! Get them!" At that the droids brought up their rifles.

"Son of a schutta!" Morii swore as she dropped her packages and pulled her vibroblade. Carth was a fraction of a second behind her and had already un-holstered his two blasters. "Get the droids!" she yelled back to Carth as she dropped down on one knee and sliced across the shins of the Sith officer. Morii heard blaster shots combine with the squeal of pain from the Sith man as her blade cut through fabric and flesh. Before the Sith could recover she shoved her vibroblade into the man's stomach, causing his mouth to gape open in surprise. He stumbled and fell to Morii's right as the second droid erupted in a golden shower of sparks.

Carth came up next to her and offered a hand, "Are you alright?"

Morii took the hand and hauled herself up. "Yeah fine," she grimaced as she looked at the carnage of the dead officer. The smell of blood; burnt wiring and burnt flesh from the dead Duros and Sith hung thick in the hallway. "Yuck," she said softly as she wiped the flat of her blade against the Sith corpse to clean it.

"/Thank you humans for saving me! Those Sith would have killed me for sure/", the female Duros looked at them both with grateful large eyes.

Morii and Carth shared a surprised look and Morii responded, "Um, your welcome!" deciding to play along. "We need to do something about the droids and the body," she said as she turned to Carth.

"/Don't worry/", the Duros put in. "/You helped me so I will help you. I know where I can hide the bodies./"

"_Do_ you have any Sith uniforms?" Carth asked the female curiously.

/"No I am sorry, I do not. You could take that one but…/" she indicated the pool of blood forming around the body.

"Pass," Carth and Morii voiced at the same time.

"/Once again, thank you for your help./" A Quarren had moved up behind the Duros and they began discussing moving the corpse and droids. Morii and Carth headed into their apartment.

* * *

The next morning Morii was interrupted from a dream about lightsabers and Jedi by a vigorous shaking. "Nhuuuuh!" she protested.

"C'mon wake up, Morii, we've got stuff to do."

"G'way" she told the annoying and persistent voice.

"Morii… get… up," each word was punctuated with a shake and she realized the annoying voice belonged to Carth.

"Oh Force what time is it?" Morii pushed herself off of her stomach and glared at an already dressed and groomed Carth. Force it was too early in the morning to see that jacket.

"It's 0800 and already late. We need to plan strategy." Carth had let Morii sleep in due to the fact that she had spent what seemed half the night tossing and turning. Deciding bribery might yield better results he added, "I bought some caffa." He reached over and grabbed one of the cups, holding it in front of her.

Morii snatched the cup out of his hand, "Carth, you are my new best friend," she said sincerely and he chuckled in response. After she took a drink she made a face. "Blech, black. You didn't happen to get any cream?" she asked hopefully.

Carth waved over to the little battered dining table that had packets of powdered cream and sweetener on it. Morii threw off the covers and made a drowsy bee-line for the table. She fixed her drink and took a sip. "Mmm," she said in appreciation. "It's not even half bad." Morii leaned against the table as her brain began waking up. "What about strategy?"

Carth sat down on his bed, "For tonight at the party," he explained.

"Okay," Morii slid down into a chair by the table. "I told this Yun guy that you and I are business partners, bounty hunters currently by trade, to explain the weapons."

"Uh-huh," Carth encouraged as he took a sip of his own caffa.

Morii cocked her head at him, "That's it."

"That's it? That's your plan? We're bounty hunters?"

"Well, yeah. Didn't really have time to think of anything else," Morii shrugged as she slurped her hot drink, "and he was more interested in my chest than in my current career path."

"What if they want to know more?" Carth asked, incredulous.

"Well, when running a scam it's best for amateurs to lie as little as possible."

Carth sat a little straighter, "Are you saying I'm an amateur?" His tone offended.

Morii smirked, "You run a lot of scams flying around the galaxy for the fleet?"

Carth slumped back down, "Well no…"

"Okay then…" Morii instructed Carth to stick with the truth for the most part. He was from Telos, she was from Deralia. They had hooked up as partners on Ord Mandell and Carth had a ship named, "Oh I dunno, let's go with _Last Chance_," she suggested as she thought it fit their situation rather well. "That's a good ship name. You're a pilot and I'm a droid programmer normally by trade and we just currently moved into bounty hunting. Presto! Instant cover. We were looking for work on Taris and got stuck in the quarantine. If we just recently became partners they won't think it suspicious if we don't know much about each other."

"Alright," Carth nodded, "That makes sense. What if things get violent?"

Morii rolled her eyes, "Try not to hit any of them. There's always meditation…"

Carth smirked, "No thanks, I'm not a sit-still kinda guy. I should be able to keep my temper."

Morii gave him a skeptical look.

"What?" he asked.


	8. Clothes Make the Woman Pt 3

Morii stood in the apartment refresher unit looking at her meager array of clothes. For a moment she lamented the wardrobe she had lost when the pirates trashed her ship. _Bloody pirates_, she thought darkly. She had some nice stuff too, a bit elaborate but they would have come in handy with the party tonight. Ah well, even if she had saved them from her doomed small freighter they would have gone up with the _Spire_. Given the choice between clothes and her hide she'd pick staying alive naked every time, but not by much.

Finally she decided on the light blue tight and low cut tunic (better to keep ole Yun distracted), her tan trousers and black boots. She had a small holdout blaster with a minimal charge which she slipped into the hidden holster of her right boot. Morii had spent a lot of hours practicing with the small gun until she was passable, which meant she could hit something the size of a Ronto, but it was better than nothing. Luckily the blaster and boots hadn't been lost with the rest of her clothes. Running some hair goop through her hair to give the curls a wet look and make them stay in place, Morii piled her brown locks into a high ponytail and put on a bit of makeup. She gave her reflection a bright and slightly ditzy smile and Morii was ready to work.

Morii exited the fresher and spotted Carth standing in the apartment waiting for her with that universal bored look all men get while waiting for a female to finish getting ready. She stopped short when she got a better look at him. "Carth… you can't go like that."

Carth gave her an irritated look, "Why not? Besides you're the one who made a _date_, not me." He made the word date sound dirty.

"Actually I'm referring to the blasters," Morii sighed. Carth was in standard gear of orange jacket and black trousers, including both blasters nestled in his thigh holsters. He also had a look on his face that said he wasn't above shooting someone. "It's a party, not a fight."

Carth narrowed his eyes, "I am not going into an apartment full of Sith unarmed!"

One side of Morii's mouth lifted in amusement, "Neither am I." She bent forward and slid her blaster far enough out of her boot to give him a peek. "But can't you put it someplace a bit more… inconspicuous? Do you have a shoulder holster?"

"No," Carth's voice was firm.

Morii raised her eyebrows at him, "Okay then let's see…" she walked over and started unbuckling his gun belt.

"Hey, hey!" Carth protested. "What the hell are you doing?"

"Improvising," she explained as she knelt in front of him.

Carth's jaw clenched, "Dare I ask?"

Morii snorted, "Dream on, flyboy." Morii finally got the holster belt off of Carth's hips, stood up and gave him a thoughtful look with her head cocked to the right.

"Flyboy?" Carth asked in amusement.

Morii ignored him while her eyes ran over him thoughtfully. Finally she smiled and said, "Turn around. Are you right or left handed?"

Carth gave a look filled with suspicion but turned obligingly. "Neither," he said.

Morii put a hand on his shoulder and turned him back to face her, "What do mean neither?"

Carth shrugged, "I'm ambidextrous, always have been. I'm good with both my hands." Carth's face reddened as the double innuendo of his comment registered. "I mean… uh…"

Morii laughed, "I'll bet that line's worked more than a few times." She joked and then pushed him around, still chuckling. "So you have no preferred shooting hand?"

Carth shook his head, still fighting his embarrassment, "Nope."

"What if we holstered it back here?" she asked as she touched his lower back.

Carth twisted around to look, "I honestly don't know, I've never had to conceal my blaster before."

"Lucky you," her retort was dry.

After some careful twisting of Carth's belt and a few false tries, they finally positioned the holster in a position where he could draw it out from under his coat with his left hand reasonably fast. Carth seemed pleased with the compromise. Morii told him she picked the left hand as most humans tended to be right handed and it might give him an edge.

"Well," Morii said after Carth's fifth successful drawing of his pistol, "looks like we're ready to party."

Carth rolled his eyes, "Yay," he said with absolutely no enthusiasm.

* * *

On the way to the party Carth had gotten Morii back for his embarrassment by teasing her. She had been razzing him about his jacket and he had made her blush by asking if she thought it was sexy. Morii sighed. To bad she hadn't just met him for a night in a spaceport cantina or something, something simple and fun. They headed up the elevator to the address Yun had given Morii, Carth vibrating with tension. "Relax," Morii said as she placed a hand on his forearm, "I'll protect you from any big bad Sith women." She gave Carth a grin.

Carth returned the look and asked, "Promise? You'll protect my virtue?"

Morii laughed, "Sure, Carth." She shook her head in amusement. The doors to the elevators opened and they stepped into the hallway. It appeared the whole floor was joining in on the party. Carth and Morii saw numerous people through open apartment doors drinking, dancing, talking and making out. A booming Nar Shaddaa dance mix flooded the entire level and few of the hard partiers already lay passed out in the hallway. "Wow, looks like a hell of a party," Morii grinned up at Carth.

"We're here to work," Carth scowled.

Morii waggled her eyebrows in response and started doing a little dance to the music, nudging him in the hip. Carth tried to fight an amused grin and failed as he watched her. Happy that Carth had smiled she quit and chuckled. "You need to relax and at least look like you're having a good time. Pretend it's a dress inspection or something." Morii threw him a coy look and sauntered off.

Carth felt his scowl returning. She was one of the most annoying people he had ever met! Not to mention one of the strangest. He sighed and trailed after Morii, catching up to her as she began moving down the hall to Rodent Face from the Cantina. Morii waited for Carth and linked her left arm though his right, putting on her best smile for Yun.

Yun was talking to a redheaded woman that after a moment Carth recognized as the woman from the cantina. _Shavit!_ he thought. Yun's face brightened when he spotted Morii, but the look turned dark when he spotted Carth on her arm.

"You made it!" Yun smiled at Morii while shooting Carth a dirty look. Carth resisted the urge to reach around and touch his blaster grip for comfort. "I was beginning to wonder if you weren't going to show," Yun gave Morii his beady version of puppy eyes. "Who's your ah… friend?" Despite the words Yun's tone was less than friendly. Carth got a mild ego boost at the thinly veiled hostility emanating from Yun. The woman however gave Carth a curious look.

"Oh this is my business partner that I told you about," Morii said brightly. When Yun failed to say anything Morii gave him a pout. "You said I could bring him." She looked up at Yun through a veil of lashes. Carth resisted the urge to snort.

"Oh of course, baby, of course you can bring a friend…" At this point the redhead whispered something into Yun's ear which caused him to relax and he gave Carth a relieved smile. "I'm Yun," he held his hand out to Carth.

Carth forced himself to smile and took the hand, feeling dirty, "Carth."

"Well, Carth, welcome to the party… and the ale's on the house." Yun seemed to think he was being generous. Carth just wanted to punch him.

Morii sauntered up to Yun's side and grabbed his arm, "Yun," she said, "how about a glass of that Tarisian ale for your date?" She gave Yun an adoring look and Carth turned his laugh into a cough at the last second. Yun however was lapping the whole act up.

"Anything for you, baby, you only have to ask. Um, Sarna, would you mind showing Carth around?" Yun led Morii off to one of the open apartments without waiting for an answer.

Sarna sighed and turned to give Carth an apologetic smile. Unlike yesterday this one held no innuendo. "Sorry about Yun stealing your friend," she shrugged at Carth. "I suppose I should apologize for last night, I came on a bit strong, I just didn't realize…"

Carth gave her a confused look, "Realize what?"

"You know," Sarna gave him a sheepish smile, "that you don't like girls."

Carth quickly covered his look of shock. He had completely forgotten what he had said to the woman to get her to stop flirting with him until just now. "Ah…" Carth rubbed the back of his neck, "um… that's okay."

"Look," Sarna began, "I don't have a date, and it looks like you don't have one either. How about we keep each other company?"

Sarna gave Carth a pleading look and he felt a twinge of sympathy for the young woman. _Get a hold of yourself Onasi, she's a Sith!_ "Sure," he sighed. He was supposed to look like he wanted to be here. Of course Sarna didn't look any happier than him to be at the party.

"Do you want a drink?" Sarna asked hopefully.

Carth looked around him at the other Sith partygoers. They didn't look like Sith. None of them were in their uniforms, they weren't harassing any helpless sentients, they just looked like… regular people. Carth could have been at any party in the galaxy. In fact the party was disturbingly similar to several fleet parties he had attended. "A drink sounds great," Carth sighed.

* * *

The party went on for hours. Most of the attendants had already been plenty drunk before Carth and Morii arrived, and now almost all of them were sprawled all over the building floor, passing out wherever they had dropped. Morii had fawned and flirted with Yun most of the night while trying to limit her intake of the potent ale that Yun kept plying on her. She retreated to the bathroom at one point to forcibly vomit the contents of her stomach. Despite this Morii was still quite drunk. Yun on the other hand was utterly and completely smashed, and Morii had ended up cornered in a bedroom with Yun and was attempting to keep his hands out of her shirt.

"Baby, you are so hot, you know that?" Yun nuzzled his nose into her neck and Morii suddenly had an _in_voluntary urge to throw up.

Instead however she giggled, "Hey!" she protested as she pushed at him, hoping to get out of the situation without getting violent. "I told yah, Yun… I'm not that kinda girl." _So much for Yun's gentleman-like behavior of yesterday_. She let out a small sigh.

"It's okay, babeee…" Yun stretched out the last word, "I love you yah know."

Morii rolled her eyes and pushed Yun's hands down, "Yeah right, like I've never head that one before."

"Itsh true!" Yun protested, "I'll make an honest woman outta yah, honest… honestly."

"No thanks, like bein' a dishonest woman," again Morii pushed his hands down out of her shirt, but they shot right back up again. "Yun, knock it off, I shaid no." Morii was trying to think through the alcohol at the best way to get Yun off of her but she was getting pissed and was ready to just deck him when he was yanked away from her. Carth had reached around to grab the front of Yun's shirt and cocked back his fist, connecting it solidly with the other man's left eye socket. Yun crumpled to the floor without uttering a sound.

Carth stared at the unconscious man for a moment and muttered, "Bastard…" He gave Morii a look of bleary concern, "You alright?"

Morii yanked down her scrunched up tunic and glared at Carth. Lifting her chin she said, "I'm fine, I can handle Tenetl… Tentacle Hands." She brushed a strand of hair out of her eyes with too much force and stumbled back into the wall. Carth moved forward to capture her, missed and put out a hand to catch himself on the wall.

"Jus tryin' to help," Carth muttered.

"Aww," Morii patted Carth's outstretched arm in consolation. "I'm distressig… distressalen… distressingly self sufficient and stuff."

Carth put his forehead against the wall with a soft thump, "Hey, Morii?"

"Hmm?" Morii stumbled over a now snoring Yun as she wandered around the room.

"Can we go home now?" Carth's voice was plaintive, "I wanna pass out."

Morii started to laugh and tripped over another unconscious person, which caused her to laugh harder. Carth watched her in confusion. Finally the laughter subsided into giggles and she looked up at Carth, who was weaving back and forth in front of her. "Haveta get clothes," she reminded Carth.

He frowned at her, "Force, woman, all you think about is clothes! I don' wanna pass out with all these Sith, I wanna pass out at home."

Morii giggled harder, "We need clothes, Carth… yunno… Sith clothes… for Bastila… Super Jedi…"

Carth wasn't sure why Bastila wanted Sith clothes, and then a connection fired in his fogged brain, "Oh right, Sith clothes, yeah I 'member now."

Morii nodded and made her way off of the floor. Weaving over to the corner of the room she found a footlocker and bent over to dig through the contents while humming a soft tune. As Carth watched her his head tilted to the side as he observed her backside sway to and fro. It was a very nice backside… Carth drug a hand down his face and blinked furiously. He must be even drunker than he thought because he had a strong urge to move up behind her… _Dammit Onasi_! He silently berated.

They managed to find a couple of uniforms that looked like they would fit, shoved them into a backpack and stumbled their way out of the apartment building. Carth and Morii leaned on each other for support and got lost twice trying to find their way back to their own apartment. Carth had taken it upon himself to teach Morii a Telosian song about a man and his wondrous cucumber and they were wandering down a walkway belting it at the top of their lungs.

They were almost to the apartment when the duo ran into a lone Sith guard on patrol. Morii pressed a hand to her mouth to suppress involuntary nervous giggles but Carth tensed as the guard approached them. Sensing Carth was going to get them both killed Morii elbowed him in the ribs. She used more force than she intended and Carth tumbled over onto the street.

"Ugh!" Carth cried as he hit the permacrete and shot Morii a dirty look.

Morii bent over laughing at the look on Carth's face. "Ooops."

"What the hell was that for?" Carth's tone was indignant as he started to pick himself up.

"Hey, you two!" a hollow voice issued from under the Sith armor as the soldier came up next to them. "There's a curfew in effect you know!"

Morii bent over Carth to help him up and whispered in a loud hiss, "Shhhhh!" She pressed her index finger to her lips and widened her eyes dramatically. After she grabbed Carth's arm and hauled him up she turned to the Sith patrolman, keeping her body placed between Carth and the soldier. "Oh hiya, Mr. Sith, sir!" she waved one hand while the other stayed clamped around Carth's wrist behind her back. "We were just goin' home, Sir," Morii gave him a crisp salute with her free hand but stumbled slightly. On instinct Carth caught her shoulder with his own free hand.

"Had a bit too much haven't you two?" the guard asked with an amused tone.

Morii felt her grin widen. Trying to look innocent she nodded five times while talking, "Oh yessir! Waaaaaay too much!" She giggled again and the guard's posture relaxed. "I'm juss… I'm just takin' my boyfriend here home," she gave the guard an exaggerated wink.

"I wanna pass out!" Carth yelled in an overly loud voice, as if the Sith was slightly deaf. He was also giving repeated nods.

The Sith guard chuckled at the two. If he was going home with her the soldier seriously doubted he'd want to pass out. "All right you two, get out of here. Consider it a warning."

"Oh thanks, Mr. Sith!" Morii grinned again. "You'ra… you're a… credit to tha Sith… Mr. Sith!" She heard Carth emit a loud snort behind her. They both watched the Sith wander down the street. Carth started to reach behind his back and Morii grabbed his other wrist with a hiss, "What the hell are yah doin', Onasi?"

Carth scowled in return, "I'm gonna shoot him, that'sss… what I'm doin'" he whispered furiously.

Morii shook her head and scolded, "No you're not! Bad, Carth… bad!" Then she broke into another giggling fit.

"Why not?" Carth asked with a frown. "One less Sith is… iss…" Carth struggled to finish his thought, "a good thing!" He beamed with pride at his logic.

"Loooooow profile…" Morii moved her hands street-wards in emphasis, "We gotta be cool… we gotta be… smooth, Carth. Be smooth, Carth."

Carth began to pout, "You're no fun… noooos fun at all."

Morii tripped as she went to give him a playful smack on the chest. Carth attempted to catch her but Morii collided into is torso and began to let out another round of muffled giggles and snorts.


	9. Surviving Pt 1

_Someone was yelling my name. I spun my head around in the direction of the voice. With a grin as I recognized him I squealed, "Daddy!" I ran toward Daddy at top speed from the front door of the house. I launched myself into his arms and he let out a winded noise at the impact._

_Daddy laughed and gave me back a tight hug in response. He lowered me to the ground, ruffled my curls and made them stand on end, "You know, Pumpkin, I think at ten you're a little big for that."_

_I pretended to pout at the observation and pushed out my bottom lip. "Daddy! I'm small for my age though, you said so!" I gave him wide, sad eyes that were guaranteed to get me my way._

_Daddy quirked an eyebrow and gave a skeptical look, "Don't you try that on me missy! I know better than to fall for the sweet and innocent look. You little girl…" he gave a playful poke at my tummy, "are a right scoundrel you know!"_

_Unable to continue the pout my face burst in a grin, enjoying the banter, "Like Jaina Blaster! Fastest gun in the galaxy!" Jaina Blaster was my current hero. She'd run around the galaxy stealing from rich greedy Hutts and helping out the poor and oppressed. All of this with perfect hair as she dodged both Hutts and the law alike while she smuggled food to the hungry._

"_You watch too many holo's girl," Daddy's voice was gruff, but his eyes twinkled in suppressed laughter. "I have a surprise for you, Pumpkin."_

"_Chocolate?" I asked hopefully. Often Daddy would bring me sweets on his way home from work._

"_No not chocolate," he frowned at my one track mind. "Besides, chocolate will make your teeth fall out!" I shot a scornful look at the old warning. It was one Mommy was fond of saying. With a smirk he said, "I think you'll like this better anyways, I found someone at the star port." He turned and revealed a gangly boy behind him that stood next to a fuchsia colored Twi'lek male._

_I grinned again as I recognized the boy in the brow Jedi robes. "Mal!" I screeched and launched at my cousin. "Holy crap you got tall!" I exclaimed in shock when I got a better look at him. I really hated being shorter than everyone else._

_Malak grinned back at me; gave me a hug that left me breathless and then sent a light punch to my shoulder. "Hey cos… miss me?"_

_I snorted at the one year older boy and tried to play it off, "Nope, didn't even notice yah'd left. Hey Mal… you get your lightsaber yet?" I had never seen a lightsaber and hoped the answer was yes._

_Mal puffed out his chest and then a hesitant look crossed his face. "Master Zhar? Is it alright if I show my cousin my lightsaber?" he asked the Twi'lek man next to him._

_I realized this Master Zhar had been staring at me, but he blinked and turned to his Padawan at the question, "I think that would be alright Apprentice." He gave Mal a soft smile and my cousin grinned back._

_Mal unclipped a silver cylinder from his belt and held it upright out in front of his chest. He flashed me an impish grin that reminded me of all the fun we'd had before he went to join the Jedi and ignited the weapon. A soft blue beam shot out of the hilt._

_I was awestruck by the blade as it appeared. It was beautiful with a soft glow accompanied by the audible hum from its power source. Mal was a Jedi! I was so jealous of him. Mal looked inordinately pleased with himself at the look on my face and I felt a bit sad. We were best friends but we were often rivals too. I saw him smirk out of the corner of my eyes as I gazed at the beautiful light in wonder. Mal smiled again in genuine pleasure at my reaction and then sent the blade back into its casing._

"_Wow," I breathed as the blade disappeared. "Can I… can I try it?" My voice was hesitant. I had missed Mal terribly since he'd left to be trained as a Jedi, but was also down right envious of all the adventures he was having without me. I had held my tears back as we went that day to see Mal off to Coruscant, but after we returned home I cried for hours in while Mommy held and rocked me._

"_Sorry," Mal said although his tone said he wasn't in the least, "Only Jedi are allowed to handle them."_

"Morii, get up."

_The world spun into a new scene where the smell of the air was thick with decaying vegetation and decaying flesh. Rain fell in large splats from a steel gray sky. My ears echoed with screams and blaster fire coming from the distance. I tried to push myself up but pain shot up my arm like it had caught fire. It was agony as white hot sparks burst all over the skin of my right arm. I felt each drop of rain like a grenade… in fact I seemed to have a vague memory of being hit with a grenade come to think of it._

"Dammit, Morii, come on."

_Serraco had gone from bad to worse. I didn't want to do this anymore. I didn't want to fight, or kill, or be the leader of anything. I just wanted to go home, I wanted my mother to hold me and my father to stroke my hair like he'd done when I was a child and had woken from a bad dream. But I had no home, not anymore. My entire childhood was obliterated in fire. As I lay there and fought the urge to cry I realized I was in a field somewhere and someone was standing over me. I heard Mal shout at me again._

"Morii, you have to get up!"

_I ignored him and wished he would just go away; I just wanted to lie here and pretend it wasn't happening. Dammit, I was tired! I wished this whole fracking war would just go away! Malak began shaking my shoulder._

"Morii, get your butt up! I'm not in the mood."

_Force, Mal was being a jerk! "Go away," I spit vehemently. Mal began rocking my shoulder again and I shot up pissed…_

* * *

Morii shot straight out of the covers and pushed Carth hard in the chest. "Leave me alone, you bastard!" she yelled. Blinking furiously at her disorientation she looked around the room and then back at Carth. When Morii got her bearings and realized what she'd done she felt heat creep into her face. "Oh, Carth… I um… I'm sorry. I was having a dream… um I didn't mean…" she gave him a sheepish look. 

Carth rubbed the front of his chest and gave her a wary one back, "Must have been a hell of a dream. What was it about?"

"I…I don't remember," Morii shrugged. "I usually don't remember my dreams. But um… sorry."

Carth thought she looked rather cute with her hair all mussed from sleep and her curls sticking out. He felt his anger begin to melt away, "Next time I'll just poke you with a stick. I can't say I was in a much better mood when I woke up, how's the hangover?"

Morii smiled back at him, "Ton's better, you?"

"I feel almost human again," he joked. Even Carth had balked at the idea of getting up the morning after the party. His head had felt like someone had taken a vibroblade and split his skull right down the middle. After both of them took turns throwing up in the fresher a few times both Morii and Carth agreed they weren't in a condition to do anything. Before crawling back into bed and a fourth turn at the toilet they had decided to wait until nightfall before attempting to enter the Lower Cities. Carth dug in his pocket and held an open palm toward Morii, "I found some pain stims too."

Morii thought the stim was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen. She shot Carth a grateful look as she picked up the stim and injected it into her thigh. The medicine worked through her system and brought the headache down to a dull roar. "Carth, I _love_ you!" Morii joked with a sigh.

Carth let out a nervous chuckle and blushed. Turning to the window he said, "It's almost dark."

Morii pressed her lips to keep from laughing at Carth's discomfort. "Do I have time for a shower?" she asked.

"Yeah but make it quick, I want to get a move on after wasting the day. I still need to change." Morii noticed he was in his standard orange Carth uniform.

She clicked her heels together and pulled off a crisp salute, "Sir, yessir!" Turning on a heel Morii ducked into the fresher before the pillow Carth had thrown could hit her in the head.

The hot water felt wonderful and Morii stayed under as long as she dared. She had to admit for all of its flaws at least the Upper Cities had water showers. Apparently Tarisian nobles were too good for sonic ones.

After she finished with her shower Morii donned the Sith uniform and checked her reflection in the cracked mirror. Ick, it was gray and an awful fit. The uniform made her look hippy, sallow skinned and her thighs humungous.

A knock on the fresher door startled Morii out of her evaluation. "Are you ready yet?"

"Yeah, yeah," Morii yelled back at Carth, "keep your pants on." She stepped out of the refresher and Carth stared. "What?" she snapped.

"Wow, that is really unflattering," Carth had an ear to ear grin plastered across his face.

"Hey!" Morii protested, but she could feel a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. Carth seemed to have no problem with the color clashing with his more olive skin tone, and he filled out his own uniform nicely.

Carth's grin became wider and his eyes twinkled, "And I think it's too big."

"Yeah well you look like a bucket of poo-doo!" she shot back. "And it's not my fault all Sith women are Rontos." Morii was trying really hard not to laugh despite herself.

"I look sexy," Carth returned as he turned around. Morii picked up the pillow by the fresher door and whacked him in the back of the head.

Carth gave a startled laugh and turned back, "Very mature," he commented. With a raised eyebrow he asked, "Ready?"

Morii sighed, "I suppose. We should have stolen armor, at least then I could hide my face." Morii scooped up a pack that contained her regular clothes and some provisions while Carth did likewise. Neither of them wanted to stay dressed as Sith for longer than it took to get into the Lower Cities. It would be like walking around with a giant target printed on them.

A few of the aliens in the building gaped at their uniforms as they exited, but the residents had come to recognize Carth and Morii over the past few days so the two were able to leave unmolested. When they got down to street level everyone except Sith patrols detoured far around them to avoid coming into a close proximity. Occasionally a Sith soldier would nod with a "sir," but that was it. Morii could feel her stomach doing flip-flops the whole time and Carth looked ready to jump out of his skin.

They made it to the elevator that led to the Lower Cities without incident. There was one bored Sith guard slouching next to the doors. He straightened up and gave a salute when he saw Carth and Morii approach. "Sirs! Heading to the Lower Cities?"

"That's right trooper," Carth responded with a nod. Morii stayed quiet, after all Carth was the military man.

"Well watch your back; those damn swoopers are taking a shot at anyone and everyone. Some sort of gang war going on. Even Sith officers aren't safe. You two might want to think about an escort." The Sith nodded after his advice in emphasis.

Morii opened her mouth to ask a question but Carth pressed down lightly with his boot heel on the toe of her boot. Morii scowled at Carth while he responded, "Don't worry soldier, we'll be fine. We're hoping not to attract a lot of attention."

"Um… yes sir," the Sith responded, his tone doubtful. "Well good luck down there!"

"Thanks soldier, keep a sharp eye out." Carth gave a salute.

"Yessir!" The Sith soldier returned the gesture while Morii and Carth entered the elevator.

Morii was giving Carth an amused look as the elevator lowered.

Carth noticed the look and asked, "What?"

"Nothing," Morii shook her head with a smile. "I just find military protocol amusing. All that saluting and sir-ing strikes me as funny."

Carth snorted as the elevator slowed and stopped. The doors slid open and the two peeked out into the Lower Cities. The area resembled the architecture of the Upper City but that's where the similarities ended. Where the Upper Cities were clean if a bit run down, here the walkways were littered with dirt and trash. Vermin could be seen darting between the piles that littered the walks. The air was a combination of rotting waste, engine exhaust and too long recycled oxygen. A haze hung about twenty five feet above the walkway and some sort of ceiling could be made out far above the trapped pollution.

Morii wrinkled her nose at the smell but scoured the area with her eyes. "If this is the Lower Cities, I'm not very excited about a trip to the Under City."

"No kidding," Carth had a disdainful look. "This is probably one of the worse places I've been. Ranks right up there with Nar Shaddaa."

Morii opened her mouth to ask Carth when he had been to the Smuggler's Moon when two Rodians and three humans ran past them with weapons drawn. The group of five had red bands around their left bicep and most wore light battle armor. They stopped just past Morii and Carth's position when another group of equally armed thugs with black bandanas tied around their heads came from the opposite direction.

"Get outta here you Vulkar trash!" a short human from the first group snarled.

A female twi'lek laughed in response, "/Dream on, this is Vulkar turf now. You Beks are scav food!/"

"/That's it!/" a Duros yelled. "/Let's kill 'em all, Terad!/"

"Sounds like a good plan to me," the tanned man responded. "Only good Vulkar is a dead one."

Both parties let out battle yells and crashed together. It was quickly obvious that the Red Armbands, or Beks were outclassed as well as being outnumbered. The group of Vulkars had better armor, better weapons and fought with vicious skill. Still the Beks got a few good strikes in and the Vulkars were down half their numbers the time the last Bek's fell dead to the ground. The trash-talking Twi'lek was still alive and she started as she finally noticed Morii and Carth standing by the elevator.

"/Well, well, it looks like the Sith have send us some party gifts,/" she smirked at Carth and Morii.

An Aqualish in the group laughed, "/Always wanted to kill a Sith./"

"/Well, Bmon, here's your chance,/" the group's leader responded. "/Let's take 'em boys./" And without further warning they charged Morii and Carth with blades drawn.

Morii stepped in front as Carth didn't have a melee weapon, "I'll cover you!" Carth yelled behind her.

Morii reached over her shoulder and unsheathed her blade. _I can't believe I ever agreed to this_, Morii berated herself as she dueled with the human of the group. It had been instinctive; Morii had stepped up before Carth's command. She had assessed the situation and known the best course of action. She heard Carth firing behind her as she brought up the vibroblade in a sharp upper cut to her opponent's torso. The man dropped dead and Morii heard the Aqualish squeal in pain and drop with a thud. The Twi'lek woman let a cry of her own but Carth only managed to wound her leg. The female Twi'lek charged Morii with a limp and a snarl.

Carth watch the two women parry and strike each other as he tried to find an opening for a shot. Unfortunately he couldn't get a clear line of sight at the gangster without risking a stray hit to Morii. The Twi'lek woman was fairly skilled and didn't go down as easy as the other Vulkars. Finally in a lightning fast jerk Morii twisted around and shoved her blade hard through the Twi'lek's chest. The blade broke through the light armor and the knife ended up buried just below the woman's sternum. The Vulkar's mouth gaped at Morii in a silent 'O' before Morii pulled out the vibroblade and the Twi'lek fell dead.

Morii stood in a crouch for a moment and panted softly, her eyes darting back and forth to make sure no one else was coming at them. When she spotted no more movement she straightened and cleaned of her vibroblade. A grimace crossed her features at the thick smell of carnage in the air. Looking back at Carth she asked, "You okay?"

Carth jerked his head up from the bodies and nodded at her, "Yeah… you?" At Morii's nod Carth let out a weary sigh. "We need to get out of these things ASAP. We'll attract too much attention wearing them."

"I think you're right. We should get off the street and find some place to change." Morii bent over one of the Bek corpses and proceeded to dig through the pockets.

"What the hell are you doing?" Carth's tone was indignant.

Morii rolled her eyes and dug out the last of the credits and a couple of frag grenades, "Interpretive dance. What does it look like I'm doing?"

"But… but… you're robbing the dead?" His tone turned a bit horrified.

Morii had moved on to another body. She saw a couple of sentients dressed in dirty rags skulk out of the shadows and gave them a warning look. The meaning was clear; _you can have whatever's left_. The scavengers wisely hung back to wait until she was finished. "Well they can't use it," she responded to Carth.

Carth's lip curled up into a snarl, "That's disgusting."

Morii actually started to laugh, although Carth's words stung a bit, "Spoken like someone who's never had to go hungry," she snorted bitterly while she moved to the third body. She was getting damn tired of being lectured about this by Republic soldiers.

Carth felt a blush creep up his neck when the implication of the statement hit him. He tried to stutter out an apology.

Morii sighed and waved him off as she went from corpse to corpse, "Don't worry about it, Carth, that's not a crime. You're tough enough but you're just used to having the fleet look after you. The past year's been a rough one for me. I do what I have to."

Carth felt like the galaxy's biggest ass at that point. Of course it certainly explained Morii's preoccupation with food. He rubbed at the stubble on his cheek, "Still I'm sorry. You're right, and it's not like I've got a bank account here on Taris that the fleet's been depositing credits into. I didn't realize, Morii."

Morii stopped digging through a corpse to scowl at him and snapped, "I don't want your pity; I just don't want to be hassled about doing what I have to, to survive!" Carth lived in the normal world, a place Morii hadn't inhabited for some time. She refused to be embarrassed about this. _Liar_, her inner voice said. _You feel like trash_.

In defiance of her internal monologue she turned back to the Twi'lek woman's corpse and picked up the dead woman's vibrosword. "Oooh shiny," she said in appreciation for the excellent make of the blade. Morii wondered where a gang thug had managed to get such a quality sword as she unhooked the woman's back sheath and slid the sword home. She then strapped the sheath to her back, "Mine," she proclaimed.

Carth shuffled his feet a bit and looked away while Morii collected anything she deemed worthwhile. Her robbing and pilfering of credits is what had gotten them this far, it was the height of hypocrisy to criticize her when he had been living off of those credits. Still he'd seen the bodies of too many friends on too many battlefields scavenged to be comfortable with it. Carth looked away in discomfort and spotted a doorway. "Hey," he said, "That looks like an apartment entrance." He pointed at the door, "Maybe we can find a place to change in there."

Morii was happy to change the subject and looked over at the doors, "Sounds good to me."


	10. Surviving Pt 2

The complex was filled with more Vulkar gang members that repeatedly attacked them. Even after Morii sliced an apartment lock open so they could change it hadn't made a difference. The damn Vulkars were like rabid kaths and charged them on sight no matter what they wore. However most of them weren't especially good fighters and Carth and Morii encountered few real problems. They were also inattentive as hell so Morii was able to take a good chunk of them down from a distance with grenades before they were ever spotted.

Morii pulled any credits or valuable they might need off the corpses defiantly, along with ransacking the apartments as they went. Morii considered it a success and they shouldn't have to worry about money for a few more days at the very least, not to mention all this stuff they could fence if need be. The only problem was that there was no way they could carry it all out of there.

Carth stayed silent about her robbing the apartments and checking the dead. He didn't like it and he couldn't bring himself to help, but wouldn't interfere. Plus he was still embarrassed by Morii's confession.

They currently stood in one of the apartments on the now Vulkar free top floor. Carth watched Morii try to slice the lock of a trunk. She had been at it for the past five minutes. "I don't think it's going to open," he told the woman seated on the floor.

Morii continued to work on the box, "Every lock can be opened… ouch! Son of a Kath!" Morii yanked her hand away and stuck her index finger in her mouth.

"Give up now?" Carth asked.

"Hell no! Now it's personal," Morii gave him a smug look and turned back to the footlocker.

Carth rolled his eyes and sat down on the floor to wait.

Morii spoke again as she continued on the box, "Hey, is this a good time for some more questions?" Frankly she was curious about him and the tension between them from earlier had relaxed considerably. Plus talking about something else would help her concentrate. Odd as it was Morii did some of her best lock slicing when her mind was preoccupied with something else.

Carth really didn't want to do this again, "I'm all ears, beautiful."

Morii twisted her upper body around and raised an eyebrow at him, "You keep calling me that and you'll be down one ear."

_Wow, struck a nerve there_, Carth thought. He chuckled, "A little touchy about that aren't you?" Morii responded with a chilly look and turned back to the box. "Is there something else you preferred I called you?"

With a snort she responded, "I'd _prefer_ it if you didn't call me anything it's demeaning and sexist."

"What," Carth leaned back on his hands, "You're the only one who gets to use nicknames?" He was having entirely to much fun antagonizing her.

"What the hell are you talking about, Carth? Oh fracking shavit!" Morii pulled the broken slicing spike out of the lock and tossed it away in disgust. She picked up another one and bit her bottom lip as she worked it into the opening.

"Flyboy?" Carth responded. "Right before the party, remember?"

Morii spun around and pointed a spike at him, "That's not the same thing."

"Okay if you say so," Carth gave her a smug smile. When she spun back around with a huff it turned to a grin. Carth decided to see how far he could push it. "Look, don't get yourself in a twist over it, gorgeous, I didn't mean anything by it!"

She looked at him with her mouth open in disbelief, "You just did it again!" This time Morii jabbed the spike at Carth as she wanted to impale him on it. "Look you overgrown fluorescent construction marker…"

Carth started laughing, "Is that your idea of an insult? C'mon, sister, you can do better than that!"

Morii narrowed her eyes and hissed, "Why you half-witted, impotent, lobotomized Gammorean Pig MAN!"

Carth laughed harder, "Ouch, I guess you can do better! I'll bet beautiful doesn't sound so bad now does it?"

Morii prepared to yell at him but paused and emitted a small squeak. She narrowed her eyes and smiled, "Your teasing me, aren't you?" Morii continued to smile and shook her head, "Pain in the ass," she muttered as she turned back to the box.

"Guilty as charged," Carth chuckled.

Morii slid the spike back in, "So about those questions?"

Carth sighed and ran his fingers though his hair, "You're not going to let up are you?"

At this point the box popped open and Morii let out a triumphant cry. While digging through the contents she said, "Don't be such a baby it's just a few questions."

"Oh ho! How can I resist a challenge to my manly pride?" Carth decided to try and distract her again, "But let me ask you something first."

Morii began pulling stuff out of the box. She held up a suit of armor in front of her. "Okay fine, but I'm going to go try this on." She walked into the fresher out of consideration of Carth to change but left the door open so she could hear. After a few minutes she wished she hadn't. Poking her head around the door frame half dressed she looked at him in shock. "Are you implying that _I_ had something to do with the _Spire_ crashing?"

"No… well maybe," Carth sighed. "Look it just seems like an odd set of coincidences that you were added to the roster at the last minute, you're the only survivor we've come across, _and_ you're the only civilian contractor that was assigned to the Jedi."

Morii ducked back into the fresher, irritated. "Yeah, Carth, I'm a Sith in disguise and now that you've discovered my secret identity I have to kill you," her voice dripped sarcasm.

"I'm not saying that!" he protested. "I'm just saying that… I don't think you're being straight with me."

"Carth, I have no idea why I was assigned to the Jedi, I have no idea why the or how the Sith blew the ship, and I have no idea what you're talking about!" Morii shook her head as she hooked the last clasp of the armor and walked out. With hands planted on her hips she said, "You know what? It doesn't make a difference, go ahead and be paranoid."

Carth threw his hands up, "I'm not trying to be paranoid! I just learned a long time ago not to take things at face value… and I hate surprises. You know what? This is a pointless conversation, let's get going."

"Fine!" Morii yelled. She walked over and locked all of their loot into the footlocker on the floor. Morii set a new password and placed her own mine over it, one that required either her or Carth's voiceprint to deactivate. After she was done she mumbled, "You started it."

Carth rolled his eyes but ignored her as he walked out the door.

* * *

They managed to find a cantina named Javyar's to Morii's delight. Carth had commented that the noise her stomach was making alone was going to give them away to any Vulkars, and they did get attacked two more times before they got to the bar. This bar was much more dirty and dingy than the one in the Upper Cities. There was blaster scoring on the walls that was separated by peeling green paint strips and old smoking stains. A Rodian bouncer dragged another passed out Rodian by the neck of his shirt toward the door. More pazaak players littered the front room, but they were less polished than the Upper Cities players. The music was a loud dance beat that vibrated in their chests. A scantily clad Zeltron woman who appeared very inebriated attempted to dance all by herself in the middle of the room. While there were humans here, there were also many different alien species which was distinct difference from the Upper cantinas. Morii immediately loved it.

She inhaled a deep breath of cigarra, sweat and alcohol with a grin, "Nice place," she told Carth.

Carth raised an eyebrow, "I just hope we don't catch anything."

Morii laughed and grabbed his elbow, "C'mon, Carth, let's mingle."

As they got to the doorway their passage was blocked by three Black Vulkars who were harassing some short guy with targeting infared goggles and a mushroom shaped hat on. In spite of his silly attire Morii knew right away what he was and scooted behind Carth. Carth looked back at her in confusion but before he could ask the small man threw a flash bomb onto the ground. Carth shoved Morii and himself to the side of the doorway, squeezed his eyes shut and heard the grenade go off and three blaster shots from the central room. Opening his eyes he peeked around the corner and saw the three Vulkars dead on the floor. The man in the goggles walked by Carth without sparing a glance as Morii tried to make herself as small as possible behind him.

After the man exited the cantina Carth turned to Morii, "Okay, what was that all about?"

"Err," Morii looked down at the floor. "Weeeell I may have a bounty on me," she whispered.

"WHAT!" Carth yelled.

"Shhhh!" Morii grabbed at his arm. "Not so loud you ass!" she hissed. "Right before the Republic recruited me I sorta…" she looked down very hard at her feet, "lost a spice shipment that I had taken for the Exchange." At Carth's look she protested, "It wasn't my fault!"

Carth drug his hand down his face, and then raked it through his hair, "Force, Morii, you couldn't have mentioned this earlier?" Great, just what they needed… more complications.

Morii gave him a bashful look, "It kinda slipped my mind what with the crash, the Sith and Super Jedi. But I may not!" she said hopefully.

"You don't know?" he asked

"Err, no but… it's pretty likely," she gave a nervous smile.

"Fracking shavit!" Carth swore softly. "How much?"

"I dunno but considering the size of the shipment… a lot."

Carth restrained himself from hitting the wall. He was beginning to wonder if they were ever going to get a break. After a moment he gave a weary sigh, "Let's go get you something to eat," and walked into the main room of the cantina.

Expecting a tirade Morii stared at Carth's retreating back with a gaping mouth. As she hurried to catch up she said, "Look I said I was sorry, Carth!"

Carth gave her an odd look for a moment, and then started laughing and shaking his head as he took a seat at a table. The longer he looked at Morii the harder he laughed. Mostly it was from the stress of the past few days. If there was nothing to hit he might as well laugh, but it was also from the absolute chaos that the past week had been and the fact that the cause of most of it was throwing him dirty looks across the table. After she took her own seat Morii crossed her arms and glared at him, "What is so frelling funny?"

He swallowed hard to stop laughing, but he still had a wide grin as he placed his chin down on the palm of his hand. "Is your life always like this?"

Morii shot a wry smile, "Actually worse; at least recently. But I'll tell you this, I'm rarely bored."

Carth raised an eyebrow, "I'll bet." They both turned to the waitress who had just approached to take their order.

Carth had expected the food to be toxic, but had been pleasantly surprised when he bit into his nerf burger. Morii on the other hand had ordered some sort of seafood, as it seemed a safe bet considering the Lower Cities probably didn't get much imported food. Carth had already finished half his burger when he said, "You know this is pretty good."

Morii was going to let him live in ignorance when his meal arrived but figured it was probably better to warn him before he ate too many "nerf" burgers. "Um, Carth, you do realize that there aren't any nerfs on Taris?" she asked casually.

"Uh huh," he nodded as he took another bite.

"And I'm um… betting that the Lower Cities don't get a whole lot of imported food… and what does make it's way down here probably costs a fortune."

Carth swallowed and gave her a confused look, "So where did this come from?" he held up his burger and took a big bite.

A smile spread on her face, "How many red meat animals have we seen down here?" she asked as she took a drink.

Carth's face went slack as he recalled the numerous rodents they had seen scavenging through the rubbish piles. He gagged and spit the half chewed food back onto his plate.

Morii spit out the sip she had just taken as she broke into hysterics at his actions. Carth continued to make gagging noises mixed with lots of swearing as he spit and used his napkin to wipe every last morsel of the burger from his mouth. He picked up his glass of beer and downed half of it in three gulps. Morii was laughing so hard she fell over in the chair.

The look Carth shot her when she got back up was murderous, "Why didn't you warn me?"

Morii pressed her fist against her mouth and took a deep breath to quell her giggles, "I didn't realize what the 'daily special' was until your order got here." She pressed her lips back tight together.

"You are an _evil_ woman," he snarled. Morii began laughing again while Carth threw down his napkin and got up.

"Carth, wait!" she called as he stomped off. "I'll share mine with you!" she broke into giggles again as Carth stormed off in the direction of the freshers while coming up with biologically impossible combinations for Morii's heritage.

After her laughter abated Morii resumed eating, occasionally chuckling to herself as Carth's face popped into her head. She heard a female speaking in a combination of Huttese and Ryl swear words and looked up. The voice was familiar but she couldn't quite place it. Standing up to find the source Morii spotted a Twi'lek woman the color of burnished sand walking out of the back room in a huff. Her eyes widened as the woman got nearer and she jumped up once and squealed, "Lyn?"

The Twi'lek's head shot up, "/Morii?/" Lyn and Morii let out simultaneous ear shattering shrieks of joy and hugged each other hard, jumping up and down while trying to talk to each other at the same time.

"Oh my Gods what are you doing…"

"/Wow you look great…/"

"I thought you were…"

The women started to laugh and Morii pulled Lyn in for another hug, "Wow! I had no idea you were on Taris! I thought you were touring with Starlight!"

Lyn rolled her eyes and scowled, "/That son of a schutta Surool…/"


	11. Surviving Pt 3

AN: What the hell? An update? Say it ain't so! Sorry about the hiatus, I won't bore you with the details. Anyways I do have several more chapters done so I have quite a bit more that will be following this chapter in the coming weeks. Please leave me feedback or I eat lots of chocolate in my depression. It's the only way I know anyone's read it! As always concrit is appreciated, but do keep in mind that I don't currently have a beta and some of my mechanics are rather weak. Still pointing them out to me helps!

* * *

Carth was still cursing Morii as he opened the door out of the fresher. He had just finished rinsing out his mouth for the twentieth time when a scream cut through the cantina and he froze, _Morii!_ Carth grabbed at one of his pistols while various scenarios went through his head as he shot through the bar. The Sith had shown up… or that bounty hunter had come back for her… or a group of the Vulkars had attacked her… he should have never left her alone! The damn woman was a walking disaster!

As he came around the corner he came upon Morii… talking to a Twi'lek woman. Carth let out a sigh of relief and exasperation when he saw Morii was all right. He scowled from across the room as he watched her chat and joke with the other woman. Damn her for scaring him like that! Stupid woman! With another sigh he wandered over to them.

"/…So then I told that Huttspawn that he could take his contract and shove it up his ass! I didn't sign up to be a prostitute! Had to pay a fortune to buy out of the contract and a ticket to Taris was all I could afford./" The peach Twi'lek frowned and with large gestures as she spoke.

Morii gave a nod and scowled, "What a Bantha's ass! He deserves to have his choobies cut off." Her eyes narrowed at the thought. She turned and at seeing Carth gave a rueful smile, "Still mad at me?"

"Now why would think that, Beautiful?" Carth smiled but his eyes were hard.

Morii frowned at the name, "Okay that's a yes."

Carth smirked and crossed his arms, "You think?"

The Twi'lek standing next to Morii cleared her throat loudly and nudged Morii in the ribs.

Morii looked over at the woman in surprise, "Oh, Lyn, this is Carth. Carth… Lyn."

Lyn held out her hand and smiled widely first at Morii, then Carth, "/Very nice to meet you, Carth./" Carth took her hand and returned the sentiment. "/So your turn, Morii, how'd you end up on Taris and who's your… _friend_?/"

Morii started to tell Lyn the whole story. Carth protested her sharing so much information until Morii told him, "Carth, its ok. I'd trust Lyn with my life; actually if it weren't for Lyn I'd be dead."

"/Well I seem to remember you returning the favor that night outside the club,/" Lyn gave Morii a fond smile and Carth's curiosity was piqued.

After Morii finished Lyn said with a laugh, "/Imagine Nemorii Vohn joining the Republic! I guess Hoth must have finally thawed!/" Morii laughed at the statement but Lyn turned serious. "/It's lucky for me you're here, Morii; I really need your help./"

Morii's lips pulled down in sympathy, "You know if I got it it's yours."

"/Well, I'm sorta out of a job since what happened with Bib Surool…/"

"You need creds?" Morii asked. Lyn was one of the few people she'd give money to free and clear with no questions asked.

"/No, no! I've got a little left. What I really need is a job./" Morii raised a suspicious eyebrow as Lyn continued. "/Javyar's is looking for a higher class of dancers than the schuttas they currently have but I need a partner for the second part of the audition./"

Morii groaned, "Lyn…"

"/Aw c'mon, Morii, I'm desperate here! I know I can get the job but I can't do it without your help! I need someone decent and all the dancers here and nothing more than glorified strippers. You said…/"

"I know dammit!" Morii squirmed in her chair. Carth was watching the back and forth with growing amusement. He wasn't sure what Lyn wanted but it was making Morii uncomfortable so it was bound to be good. Morii sighed in resignation, "When and where?"

Lyn beamed and grabbed her friend's hand, "/Oh thank you! I'll set it up for tomorrow! Be right back./" Lyn jumped out of her seat and headed to the back room of the cantina.

"So…" Carth casually took a drink, "What does she want you to do?"

"Nothing!" Morii snapped.

"Aw come on, you know I'm going to find out eventually," he gave her his best innocent smile and she snorted.

Lyn came trotting back and gave Morii a peck on the cheek. "/Tomorrow at six is when I set it up. The audition's here in the cantina. I don't suppose you still have your old outfit?/"

"Outfit?" Carth grinned.

Morii shot him a dirty look and turned to Lyn, "No, freighter go boom along with all my clothes." She sunk lower into her chair.

"/Don't worry I'll find something, I know your size./" Lyn beamed.

"Can't I just wear my clothes?" Morii pleaded. Carth looked ready to explode with happiness.

"/Morii, please! I need this job./"

"Alright, alright!" she threw a napkin on the table in disgust and began swearing under her breath. Lyn reached over and gave her another hug, "You're lucky I like you so much Lyn," Morii gave a rueful smile as she patted one of the arms Lyn had wrapped around her neck.

"/Well look at it this way, I think I can help you two out with your problem too…/" Carth and Morii perked up as Lyn sat down and began to talk. It turned out that Lyn was currently dating a Hidden Beks enforcer named Cerren and had ended up joining the gang herself. She knew that only people with high security clearance were being allowed into the Under City, "/but the Beks have connections,/" Lyn continued. "/Not to mention that if there's any other way into the Under City someone in the Hidden Beks will know about it. I'll talk to Cerren tonight to arrange a meeting for after the audition tomorrow night. Gadon's a good guy and I'm betting if he can help he will. Plus I'm pretty sure he'd like a chance to stick it to the Sith./"

"What exactly is going on with this gang war?" Carth asked.

Lyn paused as the waitress brought them another round. After she departed Lyn told them how Gadon's (the Bek leader) second in command left and turned traitor when Gadon didn't step down after being blinded. "/This whole gang war is all Brejik's fault,/" Lyn's voice was bitter. "/The Beks are the only thing keeping Davik in check. Bejik on the other hand has been taking bribes and money from Davik. If Brejik and his Vulkars win Davik will roll right over them. If you think this place is bad now, wait 'till Davik gets free reign of this sector of the Lower Cities./"

"What about breaking the quarantine?" Morii asked. "Is there anyway the Beks might be able to help with that?" They both felt the beginnings of hope wither and die when Lyn shook her head.

"/I don't think so. The Beks don't have any interstellar ships that I know of. Plus from what I understand even if you get off the planet there's still the problem of the auto-cannon satellites the Sith have surrounded the planet with. Any ship that tries to run through them without Sith security codes is instant space dust./"

Morii and Carth shared a dejected look. Carth said, "Well let's see about getting Bastila back, then we can worry about the quarantine."

Morii nodded but frankly she was more concerned about getting off Taris than rescuing the Super Jedi. Of course right now both looked pretty slim. "One other thing, Lyn, I need to know if I can trust the Beks to check on a bounty for me without trying to collect."

"/Yours?/" Lyn grinned.

Morii rolled her eyes, "Yeah."

Lyn waved a dismissive hand, "/Don't worry; you're with me so you're cool. We Beks take care of our own and anyone tries to mess with you they mess with me. They mess with me and they mess with the Beks. You two have a place to stay tonight?/"

"We're squatting in an apartment in the Upper City but…" Morii looked down at her chronometer and then at Carth, "the curfew's already in effect. Two nights in a row might be pushing our luck."

"/Well there's no curfew down here! So you two can crash at my place tonight./" Lyn spread her hands in emphasis.

"We don't want to impose…" Carth started. He didn't want to insult Morii's friend but he couldn't imagine how much worse the apartments were in the Lower Cities.

"/Nonsense!/" Lyn replied. "/You're with Morii and Morii's family. You two are staying with me./"

Morii beamed, "Lyn, you are a gem and doll."

"/It might be a little crowded though./" Morii and Carth both raised their eyebrows at Lyn's statement. Lyn merely winked at Morii, "/Let's just say I can never resist picking up strays./" Morii laughed but Carth's expression grew worried.

* * *

Looking for potential credits Morii went to talk to the Hutt that ran the bounty office. Lyn had assured Morii that the Hutt only posted local bounties so she'd be safe enough. Taking down the information she went back out to Lyn and Carth. Lyn had some stuff to do so she gave Morii a pass key and directions to her apartment. She also warned them to watch out for Vulkars as they attacked anyone who looked like they had two credits to rub together. Carth chuckled at the warning and mentioned that they had noticed. 

"/One last thing, Morii,/" Lyn began, "/I have a full fridge at the moment but you're going to have restock it when you're done./" Lyn winked and sauntered off while Carth laughed.

They exited the cantina and made their way to Lyn's apartment. The Lower Cities traffic had picked up. More people wandered the streets and the noise from swoop engines were a constant background noise as the bikes raced alongside the walkways.

Carth stuck his hands in his pockets and gave Morii a sideways look, "Sooo, about the _outfit_?"

Morii groaned, _damn you Lyn you owe me big for this one_. She cocked her head at Carth, "Sooo, about my questions?"

Carth frowned in response. "Look I just don't trust easily for good reasons, which are my own."

Morii sighed and stopped walking, "Carth we have to work together, watch each other's backs and I need to know if you've got a problem with me."

"No," Carth shook his head, "I don't think you were responsible for the _Spire's_ crash but I do think there's more going on here. Maybe it's you, maybe it's not." Carth shrugged. "I didn't get much info at all on this mission as the Jedi we're being so damn secretive about it. Basically I was there mostly as an advisor to Bastila," _not that she listened_ Carth thought. "We picked up troops at Ord Mandell and we were on route to Dantooine. We weren't even supposed to stop at Taris. Someone ratted us out. The Sith pulled the _Endar Spir_e out of hyperspace, which means we had a traitor on board." His face turned dark at the thought.

"I'm telling you I had nothing to do with any of that!" Morii was getting tired of protesting her innocence.

"Look calm down, I realize you're probably right." Seeing Morii wasn't mollified he continued. "You're probably one of the most skilled women I've ever met and you've saved my butt more than once. I'm lucky to have you along, no doubt about it! It's not you, it's me so don't take it personally."

"Don't tell me not to take it personally you Hairless Wookiee!" A flush began to bloom across Morii's face and Carth found it rather attractive.

"Hairless Wookiee?" Carth laughed. "Just… just calm down, Beautiful, before you head explodes."

"Stop calling me that!" Morii spun around and stomped off into a dilapidated store.

_Good going, Onasi_, Carth combed his hand through his hair. To make matters worse she had gone into a _store_! With resignation he followed her and realized that he'd better make things right, if for no other reason than she had the only key to where they were going to sleep tonight. He walked through the door and found Morii haggling with the shopkeeper about some of their recently lifted items. Carth couldn't help but feel sorry for the clerk as Morii was clearly taking out her frustration on him. Finally they came to an agreement and Morii shoved the stuff across the counter.

"Fine but this is lane piracy!" she told the Ithorian. "I could get more money out of a Hutt." The Ithorian calmly ignored her and passed the credits over, which Morii snapped up. Spotting Carth she stuck up her chin and started walking. "I'm not talking to you," she told him firmly.

"Funny I believe you just did," he shot back with a smirk.

Morii narrowed her eyes and swept out of the store.

_Okay that was probably not the best way to go about it_, Carth realized. "Hey, Morii, wait!" he yelled as her chased her out. "Look you really want to know why I don't trust people?"

She nodded.

Carth wiped his hand down his face, "Alright fine. Five years ago when the Jedi helped the Republic defeat the Mandalorians they were… heroes. When they turned on us and attacked the Republic it was completely unexpected. Our heroes had become brutal, conquering Sith. It was… horrifying and inconceivable."

"Okay, so what do I have to do with the Jedi? I was attached to work for them; I'm not one of them." Morii still didn't get it.

"I know that! It's not the Jedi exactly, there were others though… good, trusted men who went with them! Who betrayed everything they stood for and joined the Sith! Lord Malak and the other Dark Jedi who fell to the Dark Side deserve to die for what they did but the others who defected… they deserve _no_ mercy!" Carth said the last part with a snarl.

Morii actually stepped back at the venom in his tone. She was beginning to see why he'd been flagged for a psych eval, that kind of hatred was dangerous… to him and others. "I haven't joined the Sith, Carth," she said softly.

Carth looked down in guilt at his outburst, "I know… I guess it's just that I've gotten so used to expecting the worst from people and…" he shrugged. "I know you haven't done anything to deserve that… I… I… well that's why. I saw too many people I trusted – fought back to back with turn and become the enemy." Carth started walking down the street.

Morii hurried to catch up. Slowing down once she was next to him Morii put a gentle hand on Carth's arm, "If it's any conciliation I know how you feel." Carth gave her a look of disbelief and she returned it with a wry smile, "I know what it's like to be betrayed by those you trust."

"What do you mean?" Carth stopped and looked her in the eyes. All of the sudden there was an intimacy there. It was the intimacy of two people who recognized the suffering of one another because they had been through it too.

Morii almost told him… almost told him everything but stopped herself. _It's my only card if I'm ever going to get into Carth Onasi's head and I'm a good enough pazaak player to know when to keep my cards close to my chest,_ she thought. She smiled with a shake of her head, "Oh no you don't. You didn't really tell me anything. You show me yours and I'll show mine."

Carth grinned, "Oh that reminds me, so what about this outfit?" Carth waggled his eyebrows.

Morii couldn't help but laugh. Damn, she was really beginning to like Carth. He made her laugh, even if a moment later he usually pissed her off. "Alright, I'll tell you about the outfit, but let's get going." She started walking down the street and he joined. Carth was looking at her with expectation so she sighed and said, "When I said Lyn saved my life I wasn't kidding. I was… in a really bad spot and she came along gave me a place to stay… helped me get a job… took care of me until I could take care of myself. Lyn never asked for a thing in return. The job was… dancing," Morii grimaced.

"You don't like dancing?" Carth asked.

"No, actually I love dancing. I just hate doing it when strange men are groping me and shoving credits down my pants," Morii sighed and bit her lip. "Lyn's good, really good actually. She was way too good for that dive and she's way too good for some Lower Cities cantina. She's the one who taught me to dance, got me the job. I did it for about two months until I could get back on my feet, find a different job and pay Lyn back even though she never asked for a chip. I thought Starlight Entertainment was going to be her big break. No more dancing for sweaty pawing men but… I guess it didn't work out that way." Morii felt bad for Lyn. Her friend was too talented for Javyar's Cantina.

"Can I ask how bad a spot?" Carth asked. He judged from her earlier comment about going hungry it was pretty bad.

Morii debated telling him. She didn't want Carth to feel sorry for her, after all she'd survived and been forged into a tougher, more capable person. She had always been good in a fight but that whole experience had made her discover reserves she didn't know she had. Morii let out a weary sigh and decided to tell him the last half of it despite her earlier resolve. After all wasn't she constantly badgering Carth to tell her stuff about him? If she wasn't willing to share why should she expect him to? "All right, but this means you owe me one eventually, flyboy. I was living on the lower level streets in Nar Shaddaa through a… series of unfortunate events. I was doing okay… making it on my own," she shrugged, refusing to look at him.

_The streets of Nar Shaddaa? Force…_ Carth felt his stomach clench but kept his expression carefully neutral and his thoughts to himself.

"Anyways there was a pimp who was trying to create a name for himself in the area where I was…" at Carth's horrified look she smirked. "No I wasn't a hooker, Carth. Had some friends who were… but that's where I learned my B and E skills."

"B and E?" he asked.

"Breaking and entering. Anyways this pimp… an Aqualish named Vorshk decided he wanted me for his little business venture. He was going around threatening and intimidating anyone who either stood in his way or wouldn't take his 'offer' to join his little syndicate. Lost some good friends…" Morii pinched the bridge of her nose to keep the tears at bay at the memories.

"There was a group of us who watched out for each other… kept each other safe… told each other about safe places to squat, that kind of thing." Morii gave a one shouldered shrug and a low laugh, "I was actually the group enforcer. You messed with my friends, you messed with me and I was mean enough when need be that we usually held our own, until Vorshk moved in. First it was the girls, they of course told him to get lost. What he did to them…" her eyes were distant, hard. "No one should _ever_ have to go through that." Morii stopped talking for a moment, lost in memory.

Morii sucked in a deep breath and continued, "Anyways I was one of the few people standing in his way. He tried to recruit me, he tried to bribe me and then he threatened me and I laughed in his face. That was a mistake. It took fifteen of them but Vorshk had his thugs hunt me down one night. They beat me for hours… then left me for dead far away from my own turf so they could be sure no one would help me. It was Lyn who found me barely alive and bleeding to death in a gutter." Morii gave Carth a soft smile. "She took me in, took care of me… paid for the kolto treatments… almost a month's worth." Carth returned the soft smile. "And taught me to dance," she grinned at the attempted joke.

Carth gave her another smile. He honestly didn't know what to say. He was intuitive enough to know she didn't want an "I'm sorry." Carth was though. He knew of things like that happened in the galaxy he just had never known anyone personally… Carth said the only thing he could thing of and hoped it didn't piss her off, "You're an amazingly strong person, Beautiful." The nickname just slipped out that time, Carth hadn't meant to use it. He cringed inside and hoped she didn't explode.

To his relief Morii blushed and shoved him in the shoulder, "Oh see I knew it was a mistake to tell you. Now you're getting all mushy on me, Onasi."

"That's me, I'm just a big impotent fluorescent construction marker of mush," he chuckled.

She laughed and hooked an arm through his feeling lighter than she had in a long time. Carth was surprised at the gesture and felt something inside that he thought long dead crack open just a hair.

* * *

"I can't believe you just went up to that Mandalorian and started talking to him! Are you absolutely insane?" Carth was so agitated he combed both hands through his hair. They had entered Lynn's apartment complex after a tense confrontation with a Mandalorian merc outside. 

Morii blew up at her forehead, "I said hi, it's considered polite in certain circles," she shot back. Morii walked up to the elevator and pushed the button to call the car. Lyn's apartment was on the top floor. The door slid open and they stepped inside.

"He could have killed us just for the fun of it!" Carth glared at her.

Morii chuckled, "In case you haven't noticed people have been trying to kill us all day 'just for the fun of it.'"

"Mandalorians are dangerous, Beautiful, a lot more dangerous than a couple of swoop punks."

Morii stabbed at the floor button again in a futile attempt to make the car go faster. "Stop calling me that! And I am perfectly aware of how dangerous Mandalorians are, Carth! Look," she turned back to him, "It's over… we're not dead… so it's all fine. Besides we're here," she said as the doors slid open.

_Stupid, idiotic, gizka brained, morally corrupt woman!_ Carth stood and glared at her retreating form until the closing doors brought him out of his mental rant. He darted out of the elevator and followed her down the hall. He caught up to Morii as she was slipping the key card in the lock. The door slid open and a ball of cerulean blue energy popped up on the other side.

"Oh wow you guys must be Lynn's friends! This is so screamin', Lynn commed and told us you were coming! So hey I got dinner delivered and some holos I just picked up. By the way my name is Mission and Big Z's inside and I'm really glad you guys decided to stay here 'cause Lynn is _never_ around. Especially since she stared dating Cerren who by the way I like but all's they ever do is tonsil wrestle when they _ar_e here. Hey do either of you guys play pazaak?"

Carth and Morii stared at the young blue Twi'lek girl in front of them stunned. She was pretty, slender, about fourteen and extremely hyper.

[Mission, is that Lynn's guests at the door? a growl floated out from the apartment.

Carth gaped, "Is there a Wookiee in there?"


	12. Pissing off the Exchange Pt 1

Morii stared at the girl across the table ginning from ear to ear. Mission had talked up a non-stop storm since they entered the apartment and that was over two hours ago. She talked about the Beks, Lyn, her Wookiee friend Zaalbar… or Big Z as she called him and anything else she thought of. Morii found herself instantly liking the girl. She was smart, sassy, and had an optimism that was rare in someone who had lived on the streets. Oh Mission didn't strike Morii as naïve but the girl had an openness that was very charming.

Carth was watching Mission and Morii play pazaak at a table in the small kitchenette while Zaalbar sat on the floor tinkering with a small anti-grav unit. Carth needn't have worried about the apartment. While it was a bit cluttered and crowded, it was also clean, cheerful and decorated in bright colors. There was no "nerf" meat in sight.

Apparently until about two weeks ago Mission and Zalbaar had been living on the Lower Cities streets. They had met up with Morii's friend Lyn who - as Carth had come to see in a very short time had a very big heart, had taken them into her home. Honestly Carth couldn't help but smile as well as he listened to the girl chatter. She was a sweet kid if exhausting as hell. Carth had forgotten how wearing teenagers could be. His chest tightened as he realized that he'd never got a chance to really know how exhausting teenagers could be… damn. Carth got up went into the fresher and closed the door behind him.

Morii looked up and watched Carth as he left the room. She could tell something was bothering him and debated for a moment following, but decided against it. Something on his face said the pain was very private and Morii could respect that. Turning back to Mission she asked, "So, Mish, how did you and Z hook up?"

"Oh Mish… I like that! Well see I was hanging out in Javyar's…" Mission proceeded to tell her about the Vulkar's harassing Zaalbar and how she went up and told them to knock it off. When she got to… "I keep telling Big Z to brush those choppers…" Zaalbar let out a roar of protest. "Well maybe you should be the first Wookiee," Mission shot back. "I mean if every Wookiee's got breath as bad as yours it's a wonder all you guys don't fall over dead!"

"/Leave me alone, Mission! And not a word about baths!/" Zaalbar turned around so his back was to them and continued to reassemble the unit in front of him.

Mission rolled her eyes and leaned toward Morii, "Just try to stay upwind when you speak to him," she whispered.

"/I'm not deaf you know! I _can_ hear you./"

Morii put a hand over her mouth to keep from laughing at Zaalbar's retort. Laying down her next card she said in triumph, "Pazaak!" Mission had been winning two games for every one Morii managed to win.

"Aw man!" Mission threw down her cards in disgust. "Wow your pretty good. I usually mop the floor with people. Hey there's an annual pazaak tournament in Javyar's next month… you and me could clean the house! You should definitely come."

Carth walked out of the fresher at this point seeming a little more in control. "Well I don't think I'll be here in a month," Morii answered. "As soon as I can I'm blasting off for the nearest spaceport… unfortunately it'll be the nearest Republic one," she gave Carth a wink in an attempt to cheer him up. He sent Morii a small smile but it was forced.

"No way! You guys are with the Republic? That is sooo screamin'! Oh wow, were you guys in that space battle? Everyone was talking about the lights in the sky… and the booms? Oh man you could here them all the way down here. I tell yah it was scary as hell, talk about the sky falling and stuff." Mission proceeded to deal out another hand. Morii had only agreed to play if it wasn't for money. When Mission complained Morii explained she never gambled with her credits only her life. She ignored Carth's mumbled retort of "That's the truth."

Carth remained silent so Morii answered, "Yeah we were on that ship. Believe me, Mish, it was a lot scarier on the ship." Morii gave a shudder at the memory of the Dark Jedi who chased her through the corridors of the _Spire_.

"Yeah I'll bet, I wouldn't want to be there that's for sure," despite Mission's words her tone indicated she'd love nothing more than to have been there.

They played through another hand which Mission won and Morii quit, protesting exhaustion. It had been a very long day and tomorrow didn't look any shorter. Since they were all bunking in the main room, in consideration everyone else decided to go to bed as well. Morii came back out from Lyn's bedroom after snagging some sleep clothes to find Zaalbar pulling a hammock out from behind a chair. The hammock when strung up reached from one end of the main room to the other. Zaalbar climbed in and Mission followed with some help from her humongous friend.

Carth had tried to give Morii the couch but she declined. Carth kept pestering her until she agreed to take it tomorrow if they stuck around. Morii intended to. She felt safer and more at home in Lyn's apartment than she had in their Upper Cities one.

Carth pulled off his boots and removed his jacket. Underneath was a very tight dark blue shirt accented with (surprise!) an orange stripe across the chest and back. Morii sat in the nest of blankets she made of the floor and watched the muscles in Carth's back and shoulders move as he spread a blanket over the couch. Morii unconsciously tilted her head to the side when he bent over to tuck in the top corners. Carth's pants were awfully tight. _Somebody should freeze that ass in carbonite_, she mused. She must have had a rather stupid look on her face because she was jerked out of her thoughts when she heard Mission giggling across the room. Morii turned to look at the girl nestled in her Wookiee blanket and Mission sent back a wink. Morii threw the Twi'lek a mock scowl and buried herself into her blankets with a wiggle.

Mission and Zaalbar muttered goodnights which Morii and Carth returned. "Night, Carth," Morii said softly as she yawned.

"Night, Beautiful," Carth was lying on his stomach and grinned at her from the couch. Morii grabbed her pillow and gave him a good whack in the head. The last thing she heard as she turned her back to Carth was another round of Mission's giggles.

* * *

Except for Lyn and her beau stepping on Morii at some point in the night, she slept like the dead. No dreams, no nightmares… it was great. Lyn was one of the few safe havens Morii had known the last year. At some point in the morning she heard Z and Mission make their way out but went back to sleep. 

It was the smell of caffa that finally roused her. She lifted her head while sniffing in the direction of the delicious aroma. The delicious aroma was coming from the direction of an orange blob in the kitchenette. Morii blinked a few times and the orange blob turned into Orange Carth who of course was already dressed. He was sitting at the little table searching through the holonet, a cup of caffa in his right hand and a look of concentration on his face. Morii yawned and unfolded into a long stretch, thinking that it was not healthy to get up that early on a regular basis unless forced.

Carth turned toward Morii when he heard her stir. She stretched and yawned and Carth jerked his head back toward the holonet screen. The sleep shirt she had borrowed from Lynn was small, white and _very_ tight. Carth had seen the outline of everything. It was just deprivation, that's all. It had nothing to do with her sleep tousled curls and the way she kept blinking those ridiculously bright blue eyes at him. Not to mention the perfect outline of her breasts that jostled happily as she climbed out of the blankets… or her sculpted peach toned legs with those cold little shorts on that were slit almost too the waist… _Stop it! Deprivation!_ Carth scolded himself. Damn Twi'lek fashion sense anyways. He wished Morii hadn't borrowed clothes from Lyn, they were entirely too small. He was beginning to think he was going to have to take another shower… a rather cold shower. He was also going to have to see about getting a few days shore leave when they got out of this mess, he was getting too easily distracted. Forn would be thrilled to find out he was taking shore leave without being forced kicking and screaming.

Morii stumbled out of the blankets and made her way in the direction of the caffa. She felt like one of those undead creatures from a bad horror holo. Opening a few cupboards she came across Lyn's mugs and grabbed the biggest one she could find. After filling the cup with caffa Morii went rummaging in the fridge mumbling, "C'mon Lyn… where is it… aha!" She pulled out the container of creamer and poured a generous amount in her drink. After Morii replaced the bottle she grabbed a fruit, a plate and a knife and sat down across from Carth with her breakfast. Morii sliced the fruit in half and held one side out to Carth, "Want some?"

Carth continued to stare at the screen, "No thanks."

Morii shrugged, cut off a slice and popped it in her mouth. It was ripe and sweet… one good thing about Lyn is she always had a well stocked food pantry. Morii took a sip of caffa and watched Carth for a moment. "What are you looking for?" she finally asked.

"I'm checking the news net for anything on Bastila," Carth stared very hard at the screen until he was sure that his hormones were in check. Finally he looked up with sigh, "But I'm not getting anywhere."

Morii swallowed another piece of fruit and said, "Cheer up, Carth, with luck by tonight we'll be on our way into the Under City and have Bastila back in a jiffy!" She took a drink of caffa. Things always looked better after food and caffa Morii found.

Carth gave her a wry grin, "After the past couple of days we've had do you really thing that's at all likely?"

Morii grinned, "No, but it's good to have a dream. Hey, look at how much better off we are now. A week ago we were heading for a fiery death in Republic capital ship and now here we are drinking caffa with credits in our pocket and a friendly place to stay."

"You're serious aren't you?" Carth asked in disbelief.

"Well yeah," she said in surprise. "I went from almost being a Smuggler on a Stick thanks to that Dark Jedi, to bleeding to death all over you… to this," she waved around the apartment.

Carth chuckled and shook his head, "I guess you have a point. Since we're at an impasse what do you want to do until tonight? Oh and the 'outfit,'" Carth added as an afterthought.

Morii rolled here eyes but ignored the comment. It would just egg Carth on. "Well I have an idea about that if you want to tag along…"

* * *

"That was really nice of you," Carth told Morii as the exited out of an apartment building. They had just run into one of the bounties Morii had taken info on last night. They spent a good part of the day scouting out this area of the Lower Cities while Morii tried to dig up some information on her bounties. They had also had several run-ins with Black Vulkars. The worst injury they received was Carth had sustained a nasty gash on his right arm which had been quickly taken care of with a med pack and a kolto patch. 

Morii gave a one-shouldered shrug in response, "Hey Matrik gets to live so he's happy. Davik thinks he's dead so the Exchange is happy. I get credits so I'm happy… everybody wins. Plus that permacrete detonator made a huge explosion! Let's go get my money," Morii said happily.

They made their way back to Javyar's. Morii made Carth go in first and check for the bounty hunter who had been in there yesterday. Luckily the bounty hunter seemed to have found something else to occupy his time. Carth came back out to assure her the coast was clear and they went in, ducking out of the way of a brawl between two pazaak players as they made their way to the back room.

Morii went up to the Zax the Hutt, produced the family ring Matrik had given her to provide as "proof" of his death and began to haggle on the bounty payout. She managed to get a hundred extra credits out of the slug and knew better than to push her luck. She found Carth sitting at a table with two plates of some sort of fish in front of him. "Carth," she said in surprise, "did you order lunch?"

"I thought you might be hungry," Carth gave her a bland look.

"Thanks!" Morii said as she sat down. "I see no nerf burgers today," she grinned over her plate at him as she began cutting into her food.

Carth merely scowled, "I still haven't forgiven you for that. You let me eat half that burger before you said anything."

Morii gave her fish a suspicious look, "You didn't poison it, did you?"

"Serve you right if I did," was all he said.

"Well," Morii sighed dramatically, "at least I'll die with a full stomach."

The two of them were picking at the remains of their meal and finishing the last round of drinks when some sort of argument from the front of the cantina reached their ears. Morii grew concerned when she recognized a voice. "Is that Mission?" she asked Carth. In silent agreement they headed to the front of the bar and found Mission in the pazaak room surrounded by three Vulkars. What's worse is there was no Zaalbar in sight.

"/C'mon Mission, don't you want to be friendly?/" A Twi'lek man asked and reached up to caress Mission's cheek.

Mission jerked her head back. A purple flush of anger flooded her cheeks. "Get away from me you core slime!" she hissed.

The male Twi'lek scowled "/Now that's not very friendly, is it boys?/" he asked his friends.

"/Definitely not, I think she needs to be taught a lesson in manners,/" a Devaronian said as he leered at Mission.

The third of the group, a Rodian, laughed "/Let's take her somewhere and teach her./" The Rodian grabbed Mission's upper arm. Mission shot up her other hand and connected the heel of her palm with the Rodian's jaw. When he let out a howl and let her go Mission took her recently freed hand, grabbed an antenna and snapped. The Rodian dropped to the floor writhing in pain.

"/You little schutta!/" the Twi'lek pulled back his arm to backhand Mission but froze at the sudden sensation of cold metal against his temple.

Carth shoved the barrel of his blaster harder into the Twi'lek's temple, "Now that wasn't very friendly at all… was it, Morii?"

Morii had the tip of her vibrosword pressed uncomfortably in-between the legs of the Devaronian. She shot the horned alien an evil grin and he returned it with a nervous swallow. Morii continued to give the alien a deranged smile as she answered, "Oh no, Carth, I think these guys are the ones that need a manners lesson." The Rodian had the bad luck at this moment to try and pick himself up off of the floor. Morii kicked out her boot and it connected with his already damaged jaw. "Stay down there," she said without taking her eyes off of the Devaronian. The Rodian Vulkar gave a gurgled howl in response.

"Oh dear, Beautiful, I think you broke something." Carth leaned in closer to the Twi'lek and said softly, "She's the mean one."

"/Do you… do you… do you know who we are?/" the Twi'lek squeaked.

"Yeah," Carth hissed, "Cowardly scum who have to gang up three to one on a teenage girl."

"How about I just cut 'em off? Then there's no more problem," Morii smirked at the Devaronian who trembled in response and looked to the Twi'lek for help. "What do you think, Mish?" she asked the girl.

"I think these Vulkar Trash deserve only the best," Mission snarled at the Twi'lek in response to Morii.

"/When Brejik hears…/" Carth interrupted the Twi'lek with a knee to the alien man's stomach.

"Get the hell out of here before my lady friends do something _you_ might regret." Carth shoved at the Twi'lek and he stumbled toward the door.

Morii lifted her sword and pushed at the Vulkar on the floor with her boot, "And don't forget to take your trash with you." The two men scrambled to grab the Rodian and dragged him out the front door. After they exited Morii turned to Mission, "You okay, Mish?"

Mission straightened her vest and lifted her chin, "Oh yeah I'm fine. I could have handled those Vulkars, they don't scare me."

Carth looked doubtful but Morii put an arm around Mission and gave her shoulder a squeeze, "Oh we know, we just thought we'd even the odds." She grinned at the girl.

Mission beamed back, "Oh, well… okay thanks!"

Zaalbar entered the cantina at that point and gave Carth and Morii a nod. As the Wookiee turned to his friend he asked "/Mission, why haven't you ordered lunch yet?/"

* * *

Mission and Zaalbar joined them at their table for lunch. After Big Z was on his third plate Carth made a comment about finally finding someone who ate more than Morii. She threw a left over garnish from her plate at him in response. After some discussion Carth and Morii agreed that the lack of a Sith presence made staying in the Lower Cities much safer. Carth voiced concern about going by the elevator guards too many times and arousing suspicion. Luckily Mission happened to know several back ways into the Upper Cities. She escorted Morii and Carth back up topside to retrieve the stuff from their apartment. Zaalbar declined to go, saying that while Twi'leks were tolerated a Wookiee would draw a lot of notice and scorn in the Upper Cities. 

Although already loaded down with stuff Morii wanted to make a detour to the med clinic since Zelka was so cheap. They dumped their stuff in a corner when they entered and Zelka greeted them. The subject invariably turned to the rakghoul disease.

Zelka sighed and rubbed his forehead, "It's the bites of the rakghouls that are contagious. Once a person's infected it only takes about twenty four hours for them to completely transform."

Carth and Morii shared a nervous glance. Sure Bastila was a Jedi but if she was already bitten… "And there's no cure?" Carth asked.

Zelka frowned, "That's what's so frustrating! There is a cure. The military base had just perfected a serum to counteract the effects if it was administered before complete transformation. They finished it right before the Sith showed up. Because the invasion happened so fast it wasn't mass produced. I understand the Sith are synthesizing it but they are only issuing it to Sith patrols going into the Under City. If I had a sample I could start mass producing it myself… but there's no way for me to get a hold of one. I even have a shady contact who could smuggle it down into the Lower Cities for me." He smiled at Mission who apparently knew the doctor from previous trips to the Upper Cities. Zelka gave a forlorn shrug. "There's nothing else I can do about it except hope the Sith don't stay long, and that they leave some of the serum or at least research notes behind."

They finished their purchases, gathered up the rest of their stuff and headed out the door. A tall rail thin human with light brown skin appeared out of the shadows before the exit. "Hey you!" he whispered. "I need to talk to you." He made a beckoning motion toward the trio.

Morii and Carth shared a skeptical look. The man just oozed slimy. Morii shrugged and they walked over to him, "What about?" She gave the man a look indicating it had better be good.

The man looked back and forth anxiously and said, "Zelka isn't the only one looking for the rakghoul serum. Davik Kang wants it… and he'll pay you big money for it."

"Why does Davik want the cure to the rakghoul disease?" Carth asked. Morii however had a pretty good idea and felt her stomach churn.

"Its power," she said as she scowled at the clinic worker. "It gives him another thing to hold over people's heads. Get the rakghoul disease; you have to come to Davik who would have the monopoly." Mission was nodding in agreement while Carth looked puzzled.

"I can see you're someone who knows how things work," the man nodded and gave Morii a toothy grin. "Look Davik thinks Zelka is his best bet for actually getting a hold of the serum. If you get a sample come to me and I can arrange a meeting with Davik. He'll give you thousands more than Zelka can afford."

For a moment Morii said nothing. Finally she gave a nod and walked out the door.

Mission and Carth followed and Mission raced to catch up, "You're not seriously considering selling a rakghoul serum to Davik are you, Morii?" Mission's voice was horrified.

A devious half smile crept onto Morii's face. "Well for one thing if that guy really works for Davik I don't want to piss him off. Pissing off the Exchange is not a good thing, Mish, trust me. Second of all, who says that if we find the serum we're only going to find one sample? It'd be pretty stupid for a Sith patrol to go into the Under City with only one dose of serum on them, now wouldn't it?" she raised an eyebrow at the girl.

Mission thought for a second and then started laughing. Carth looked from one to the other in confusion and said, "Okay I don't get it."

Mission spoke before Morii had a chance to explain. "She's sayin' that if she finds the serum, she's probably going to find more than one." Mission looked over at Morii, "So you sell it to Davik, and then give it to Zelka! Brilliant!"

Morii shrugged, "It's all a moot point anyways. At this point we don't even have access to the Under City."

"Why does Davik want the rakghoul serum? I mean except for the select few most in the Lower Cities are poor and with what I've heard about the Under City…"

Morii let out a sad sigh, "There are other forms of commerce than credits. If it was your family, your spouse, or worse your kid you'd give anything right?"

Carth's jaw clenched and his face went hard with anger and… grief Morii noted. "Yeah," Carth said softly, "I would."

"And that gives him a unique power in the Lower Cities," Morii finished. They walked back to Mission's access tunnel in silence.

* * *

Later that evening Carth, Mission, and Zaalbar had front row seats for Lyn's audition in the back of the cantina. Judging by the level of embarrassment Morii had been exhibiting Carth wouldn't have missed this for all the ale on Taris. Numerous other patrons had begun to gather as well as the news of the show spread. Javyar's rarely got dancing beyond a show of hip grinding and the occasional twirl on a pole. Javyar, a large Iridonian had actually made a personal appearance to see the audition. He was apparently hoping to up the class of his establishment. Carth thought if he wanted to do that he probably should start with a remodel. 

Mission was chattering happily away while Zaalbar chuffed the occasional comment. She also translated for Carth and Big Z as Carth didn't speak a word of Shriiwook beyond a particularly colorful insult he had learned off of a fleet buddy. He didn't think that would be a very good way to stay on the Wook's good side.

"I wish they'd hurry up," Mission said with impatience. "I really want to see Lyn dance, Morii said she's really screamin'."

Carth seriously doubted Morii had used the word 'screamin'. "Well I certainly hope it's worth the wait," he said.

"You just wanna see Morii's outfit," Mission nudged him in the ribs.

"Actually I just want to see Morii get very embarrassed," Carth smirked back. Although a skimpy dancing outfit was definitely a bonus…

Carth's train of thought was interrupted as the lights in the room began to dim. The patrons started to hoot and holler, banging fists on the table in impatience. The room was almost pitch black when two figures exited from a room on the left. Carth narrowed his eyes but all he could see was two female outlines. He assumed the shorter curvier one was Morii as Lyn had a couple of inches on her friend. The women stopped in the center of the floor that had been cleared for the show. They each raised an arm above their head in identical poses and an instant later the DJ started a booming dance tune.

Morii's nerves were so bad she felt like she was going to throw up right up until the point the music started. Lyn had picked the song mostly for the beat; it was a song about a woman trying to lure a man into her arms as she relayed how much more appealing her charms were than his current lover's. It was a sensual song with a bass line perfect for a slow seductive dance. The dance relied on subtle movements of the body rather than grotesque gyrations or acrobatics.

As the music washed over her and she began the steps her body fell into the old rhythm. Lyn had picked a dance they had done together many times since Morii was so out of practice. The beat of the first song was mild and this dance required muscle control… it was their warm up.

Morii felt heat touch her skin as the lights rose slowly and washed over them. It was designed to reveal more and more over the dancers' bodies as the song went on, teasing the audience first with glimpse of them and eventually revealing all throughout the song.

As Morii and Lyn found their old rhythm Morii felt her mind shut down. She did love dancing and when she could do it without worrying about being groped it became an almost transcendent experience. It felt good to stretch her body into the positions as she swung her hips in time with Lyn's and moved her arms in sinuous lines. Morii felt powerful, in control and things like exchange bounties, Jedi's and paranoid Republic soldiers melted away.

Like distant thunder Morii could hear the cheers of the crowd and felt the energy of their attention fill her limbs with power as she and Lyn twirled and stepped around each other, their bodies' identical copies of each other from hours of practice. Lyn could feel that they were in perfect sync and flashed Morii a grin which she returned.

The first thing Carth noticed as the dance started was that Lyn was good. She was grace and fluidity and it was art more than dancing. She wasn't just moving to the music… she was the music. Morii was right; Lyn was too good for some Lower Cities cantina. He watched her sway with wholly male appreciation. He then turned his eyes to Morii and felt like someone had hit him between the eyes with a hammer. Morii wasn't as good as Lyn. She wasn't quite as graceful or polished but the way she moved… Carth found it absolutely obscene, and he loved it.

_She's… she's… beautiful!_ He had called her the nickname mostly because he knew it annoyed her but watching Morii dance Carth found that he had all sorts of wild fantasies running through his head that mostly involved both of them naked, sweaty and tangled in sheets. His eyes trailed up her bare leg like a caress as she stretched it in opposition to Lyn's. Morii's eyes were half lidded and slightly glazed while she was absorbed in the dance and her mouth was a tad open in an unbelievably sexy pout. Carth squirmed slightly in his seat while he watched her twist and turn. The two dancers arched backwards so that they each were in opposing backbends. Carth restrained a small groan as the position caused her breasts to appear as if they were trying to break free of the top she was wearing. It was torture, slow exquisite torture to watch her as she swayed to the music.

Morii felt her stomach muscles burn as she slowly pulled herself up from the backbend, enjoying the sensation. She could hear the crowd like a distant roar. It reminded her of the surf crashing on the beaches of Deralia. Quickly Morii turned her thoughts away from home before they distracted her. Putting herself wholly into the dance once again she concentrated on matching Lyn's movement and making sure their timing stayed in sync.

The song was winding down and the dance was almost at an end. Morii found that she was sorry as she had missed doing this. Of course she only danced this well when she danced with Lyn, who could bring out the best in any partner. Morii heard the last verse of the song and leaned her back against Lyn's in an almost identical position to the one they had started in. She raised one arm above her head and they froze as the last beat echoed through the cantina. For a second there was dead silence, and then the room exploded.

Carth was so absorbed in watching Morii that it took a few seconds for sounds the whoops and hollers of the audience to reach his brain. He stared stupidly at Morii for a moment before he joined automatically in the clapping. Beside him Mission was screaming her head off and Zaalbar roared with appreciation. The entire room was on their feet cheering the two women with whistles and cries as several men and a few women threw out subtle and not so subtle offers into the din.

Lyn and Morii stood still for a moment in their finishing position while the crowd went berserk. They took a bow and stood back up. Lyn looked over at Morii with shiny eyes and mouthed a silent "Thank you." Morii grinned and gave her a wink back. After a dance and response like that Morii knew that Lyn was a shoo-in. They probably didn't even need to do the second dance.

Javyar was walking up to the two dancers clapping enthusiastically and beaming. "/Ladies that was spectacular!/" he said as he came up to them. "/You're hired! You can start tomorrow!/"

Morii's mouth dropped, _oh shavit!_ "Excuse me, Javyar…"

Lyn interrupted "/Mr. Javyar, my friend Morii was just here tonight to help me./" She gave the bar owner an apologetic smile. "/She's not here to audition./"

Javyar's face fell at Lynn's words. "/Really? Are you sure?/" he turned and asked Morii. "/Don't get me wrong Lyn's fantastic, I would have hired her regardless, but the two of you together… why I bet I could get Tarisian nobles down here to watch you both./"

Morii knew it was time for some fast talking. She definitely didn't want a dancing job but she also didn't want to ruin Lyn's chances. "I'm sorry, Mr. Javyar, but I'm only on Taris until the quarantine's lifted. I appreciate the compliment and I'm very flattered. Especially since Lyn is the one who taught me to dance in the first place…"

"/Really?/" Javyar's voice was impressed.

"Oh yes she's an excellent teacher!" Morii said enthusiastically while she nodded wide-eyed.

"/Hmm,/" he gave Lyn a thoughtful look. "/Do you think you could teach my dancers to dance like that?/" he asked.

"/Well a few of them do have some talent,/" Lyn paused thoughtfully "/but teaching was not part of the offered contract…/" Lynn gave Javyar an expectant look.

Javyar laughed "/Smart girl. It's settled then. We renegotiate the contract and include teaching as part of you duties… and pay. Come to my offices tomorrow afternoon at one, Lyn./"

Lyn gave Javyar a wide grin "/I'll be there!/" She then turned to Morii, squealed and pulled her into a tight embrace.

Morii laughed and returned the hug, "Congrats, Lyn!"

After Morii and Lyn broke apart a tall sandy haired human man lifted Lynn off her feet and spun her in a circle. "Oh, baby, you were screamin'! Absolutely screamin'!"

Lyn laughed "/Put me down, Cerren!/" Despite her words Lyn looked delighted by her boyfriend's reaction. Cerren did put her down and proceed the kiss her soundly.

"Ugh, more tongue wrestling," Mission and Z had appeared on Morii's right side. Mission was grinning ear to ear.

"/Mission, be nice,/" Zaalbar admonished.

"Ah Big Z… you guys were fantastic! Absolutely scr…"

"Screamin'," Morii finished with a laugh. "Thanks, I told you Lyn was good."

"You were great too!" Mission bobbed her head down enthusiastically as Carth walked up. "Wasn't she, Carth?"

Carth gave a shrug and a smile, "You weren't half bad," he said casually.

Mission let loose a loud snort, "Oh yeah… just check out the puddle of drool where Carth was sitting. Half bad…" Mission rolled her eyes.

To Morii's surprise Carth actually blushed and looked away, "Ah, well… it is a nice _outfit,_ Beautiful." He grinned at her.

Morii rolled her eyes but laughed, still on an adrenaline high from the dance. "Well my next stop is to get out of the outfit… and wipe all this crap off my face." Lyn had done their makeup. Since it was stage makeup it was heavier than Morii normally wore and her face felt itchy. "I'll catch you guys in a minute." Morii walked over to Lyn to let her know where she was going.

Mission gave Carth a look, "Half bad…" she rolled her eyes and then made a show of bugging her eyes and dropped her jaw open in an exaggerated manner, mocking Carth's face during the show. "Jeez…"

Carth glowered at the girl as she sauntered off. Great just what he needed… two smart assed females to deal with.

* * *

AN: Both Lyn and the little dancing sidequest have always annoyed me to no end and usually in-game I avoid it. I suppose that's probably why I decided to reinvent both as I wanted to give a plausable explanation to it. Because of this Lyn has turned into a character I'm very fond of. As always concrit appreciated (this is me pimping for reviews!) Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last update! 


	13. Pissing Off the Exchange Pt 2

AN: Thank you so much to everyone who bothered to review and to those who added this story to alerts/favs. You make my day when I see that ffnet e-mail. This will probably be the last quick update because the rest of the chapters I have done need some more TLC. But not to worry, I promise there's more to come. As always con-crit is appreciated as it helps me do this better, and general comments are lovely too.

Note: Morii is the Angelina PC head, if you're curious.

* * *

"Bastila's a slave? Well that's just fracking great! What the hell are we going to do now!?" Morii threw her arms up and stomped around the room cursing up a storm.

True to her word Lyn had gotten Carth and Morii a meeting with Gadon Thek, the leader of the Hidden Bek gang. It turned out that the Sith hadn't gotten a hold of Bastila, instead a group of Black Vulkars had come upon her pod shortly after the crash and taken her prisoner. The leader of the Black Vulkars was putting up Bastila as their share of the winning pot for the Taris swoop season opener. He was currently holding her in an undisclosed location until the race.

Morii kicked the wall hard in her frustration. What kind of Jedi gets kidnapped by a second rate gang anyways! Stupid Super Jedi! Morii was tempted to let her rot. She took a deep sigh and pressed the heels of her hands against her forehead. This whole rescue operation just went from bad to worse. After she began to feel a bit calmer Morii walked back over to Gadon's desk and flopped into her chair. "Okay, so where can I get a swoop bike?" she asked dejectedly.

"Well I might be able to help you with that, but I want you to do something in return." Gadon gave Morii a shrewd smile. "I saw you in that off season race on Talus two months ago. You're crazy, but you're good."

Morii dropped her head into her hands while Carth gave her a shocked look and asked, "You swoop race?" Morii continued to surprise him.

Morii grunted a response. Lifting her head she asked, "What do you want, Thek?"

"I need you to get something back for me. We were working on a prototype accelerator engine for the swoop race. Right before we could finish it a Vulkar spy that had infiltrated out ranks stole it. With that accelerator and the money Davik's been funneling Brejik for bike upgrades they'll mop the floor with us, but if we can get that accelerator back the Beks will stand a fighting chance of winning. If you get that engine back for me I'll let you ride under the Beks and… I'll let you ride the bike with the prototype." Gadon leaned back in his seat, crossed his arms and stared at her with his ocular implants.

"You'll let me ride the modified bike? Okay what's the catch?" Morii scowled at the gangster.

Gadon sighed and gave Morii a wry grin. "Well the problem is the accelerator isn't stable and it could blow during the race. None of my riders will risk it. But dammit I need that engine!" Gandon slammed a fist on his desk in emphasis. "The money Davik's been giving the Vulkars has provided them with professional circuit level bikes. No other bikes in the Lower Cities will stand a chance. So you get the engine back and you can ride in the race. You have to have gang sponsorship to enter regardless. If the Beks win you get your friend back. If one of the other gangs win… well don't count on them being as generous."

Morii gave Gadon a disbelieving look, "So you want me to break into the Vulkar's base, steal the engine back, and ride said engine in the race knowing it could explode?" She ended with a screech.

Carth shook his head, "Forget it, Thek. Come on, Morii, let's go, we'll figure out something else." Carth rose out of his seat. He was crushed at the news but he couldn't let Morii kill herself either.

Morii didn't get up. She stared at Gadon for a minute and said softly, "I don't have any choice do I?"

The look Gadon shot back was sympathetic. "I'm afraid not. Despite my best efforts we haven't been able to locate where Bejik's holding the Republic woman but we know it isn't at their base. If the Vulkars win they'll sell her to Davik's slavers, or worse the Sith. My racers want to win, but none of them are willing to risk exploding to do it."

Carth watched Morii's face fall and clutched her shoulder, "No, Beautiful, it's too dangerous. We'll figure something out."

She looked up at him with defeat in her eyes, "Like what, Carth? The race is in a week. If the Vulkar's sell her to Davik we'll never get her back." Morii shook her head, "There are no other options."

Carth sighed, he realized was probably right but he didn't like it. "So how do we go about getting into the Vulkar's base? I seriously doubt they'll just let us walk in."

"No," Gadon shook his head, "getting into the base won't be easy. There is a way though. I happen to know for a fact that there's a back entrance through the sewer system in the Under City. Of course first you have to get past the Sith into the Under City."

"Well we've got some Sith officer uniforms…," Morii offered. It was a long shot by far but as of right now it was all she had been able to come up with. Carth had voted they wait and see if a better opportunity presented itself.

"Nope, won't work," Morii's face fell at Gadon's words. "Uniforms or no you need security papers to get into the Under City. Now I happen to have some," Gadon gave an evil grin. "A patrol of mine picked them off of a squad that didn't make their destination." Carth smirked approvingly back at Gadon's words. "Tell you what, you two give me your uniforms and I'll give you the papers. Security papers are all you need to get past the elevator patrols and those uniforms might come in handy for me and mine."

Morii blew up in irritation, "Okay, you've got a deal. Somehow though I'm betting there's more."

"Yes there is," Gadon replied. "The back entrance to the Vulkar base is guarded by a rancor."

"A RANCOR!?" Morii and Carth yelled in unison.

Gadon nodded, "Big nasty bugger too. The Vulkars keep it minimally fed, but hungry enough to eat anything that comes in its path. But," he held up a hand when Morii opened her mouth, "I can help you there too. After we're done go talk to my man Rew, he's been working on a little something. The third obstacle is the real problem. The entrance into the sewer system where the Vulkar back door is just had an Aratech Advanced high security force field placed across it. We still haven't managed to find a way around that bastard. That little problem is another gift courtesy of Davik Kang," Gadon spat.

Morii's head fell forward and thumped the top of Gadon's desk. Carth leaned forward to hear what she was saying and realized Morii was muttering, "frack, frack, frack, frack…" while thumping her head in tempo. Carth frowned and grabbed her shoulders, yanking her back up before she hurt herself.

Morii frowned back at Carth but stopped beating her head against the table. Carth turned to Gadon and asked, "There's no way around this shield?"

"I haven't found one," Gadon sighed. "I asked all my slicers and every one of them say they can't do it. Believe me if I had away around it I'd tell you… I want that engine! I need the gang support winning the season opener would get me… I'm sorry." Gadon held his hands out in a pleading gesture.

Morii sighed while rubbing between her eyes with her thumb and index finger, "It's not slicing in the traditional sense… you need a security expert to get past one of those. My security skills are mediocre at best." Morii looked over at Carth and gave another sigh. He had that "I'm not giving up" and "it'll all work out look" on his face. The man _was_ delusional.

Morii rose from her seat and Carth a second behind her. Holding out her hand she said, "Well thanks for seeing us, Gadon, and thanks for what you did. I guess we're further along than we were." Gadon clasped Morii's wrist and then Carth's in acknowledgement.

They turned to go when Gadon spoke, "Oh wait, I have something else for you, Morii. Courtesy of Lyn… she's good people. Don't ah… share this with anyone you don't trust, it's awfully tempting. If Lyn hadn't vouched for you… well I might have taken the offer." He handed Morii a data pad. "Good luck you two." With that they walked out the door.

They found Mission and Zaalbar in the Bek's private cantina. Feeling depressed Morii grabbed a drink from the bar before heading over to the two. Zaalbar was eating of course and Mission was talking to an anonymous Bek. Morii took a seat at the table and Carth the one next to her as the Bek got up to leave. Tossing the data pad on the table she put her chin in her hands and brooded into her drink. How the hell were they going to get past that shield?

"Beautiful, are you sure you can't get around that shield?" Carth asked.

"Yes I'm sure!" Morii snapped. Carth jerked back in offense. "Sorry," she apologized. "It's just that I'm frustrated. I could sit there for a week working on the thing and not make a dent. I wouldn't even know where to find someone who could crack it here. We're screwed."

"Hey what's wrong?" Mission asked them as she snatched some food off of Zaalbar's plate.

Zaalbar made a roar of protest. "/Hey that's mine!/" He yelled at the girl.

Mission gave a long lick down the side of the piece of bread and held it back out to Zaalbar, "Here you go, Big Z," she said impishly.

"/That's disgusting! You have awful table manners, cub./" Morii was pretty sure this was the first time she had ever seen a Wookiee pout. "/Awful…/" Zaalbar muttered.

Mission grinned and took a bite of the bread, "So what's your guys' problem?"

Morii continued to brood so Carth answered her, "Aratech Advanced security shield."

Mission swallowed her bread, "Oh I can slice those! So where's it at?"

Morii jumped in her seat. Narrowing her eyes at Mission she asked slowly, "You can slice an Aratech Advanced high security shield?"

"Yeah just did one last month for a big score in an Upper Cities Mansion. Got some nice stuff too, see this bracelet? Pretty screamin' huh?" Mission held out her wrist in front of Morii's nose.

Morii ignored the wrist and grabbed Mission in tight hug. "Ack!" Mission said, "Air…"

"Mission, I love you!" Morii exclaimed as she let the girl go.

Mission giggled at the sentiment, "So what's going on? Where's this shield?"

Morii filled her in on their plan while Carth watched in disapproval. There was no way in hell he was taking a kid into the Under City. Apparently Gadon hadn't been aware of this particular skill of Mission's. The girl hadn't mentioned it to the gang leader and complained that all the Bek's were way to overprotective of her and didn't like her larcenist tendencies.

"You guys are gonna break into the Vulkar base," Mission whispered in reverence after Morii finished telling the Twi'lek what they were planning. She then slammed her palm on the table, "I so want in!"

"This is going to be dangerous," Morii warned. Carth was relieved that his partner hadn't completely lost her senses.

"Pshaw!" Mission dismissed, "I can take care of myself."

"Well…" Morii paused, "Alright, Mission, but you listen to Carth and I, what we say goes."

Zaalbar gave a sigh, "/I suppose we're going to the Under City/" he said in resignation.

Hearing the acquiescence in Zaalbar's tone if not understanding the words Carth sputtered, "You're not serious? You… you… we… can't take a kid into the Under City! That's… insane! You're all insane!"

"Hey, I am not a kid! I'll be fifteen in two months!" Mission shot back.

"Mission, you are a kid; a smart, tough kid, but a kid nonetheless." Carth's voice screamed parent, Morii noted to herself…interesting. "The Under City is no place for a kid, even a kid who's got a Wookiee to look out for her!" Carth's face was getting flushed.

"/Uh oh…/" Zaalbar muttered.

Mission shot out of her chair, her lekku twitching in agitation, "I don't have to take that from you! I got news for you, geezer… Big Z's my friend, _not_ my babysitter! I take care of him just as much as he takes care of me! Jeez I offer to help and you sit here and give me a lecture. Keep anymore of those thoughts in your withered old head where they belong! I don't need you babying me!"

Morii choked on the drink that she had just taken at the reference to Carth as withered.

"Fine!" Carth yelled. "And I sure as hell don't need this!" His chair fell over backwards as he jumped up and stormed out of the cantina while the other patrons watched in silence.

Morii debated following for a moment but shrugged and decided to let Carth cool down first. She needed Mission to get past that shield, Carth could get over it or not get one missing Jedi. Besides Morii had a pretty good inkling that Mission was a lot tougher than she appeared and Morii had every intention of making sure nothing happened to her. You didn't last long living on the streets if you didn't have a brain. She liked the kid… and made a mental note _never_ to call Mission that.

Instead Morii picked up the data pad Gadon had given her while Mission muttered, "Decrepit old jerk…" and turned it on wanting to see how much the bounty was. The way the system currently worked was the contractor put up the bounty for the client. The bounty target could avoid being hunted and/or killed by matching the bounty money. The bounty contractor then passed the money onto the original client and the contract was considered settled. The catch was that the bounty had to pay which ever price was higher. Morii needed to see what she was up against. Yep she had a bounty for the lost spice. It wasn't a surprise. The bounty was dead or alive… Morii wasn't too surprised at that. Twenty thousand credits for dead… hmm it was high but not impossible, she could probably come up with the money to pay that off.

Scrolling down further Morii spotted the alive bounty and spit out her drink. "One million!" she shrieked. The cantina once again fell quite. Morii darted her eyes around the room and pressed the data pad to her chest as if afraid the other people in the room would be able to see it. After a pause she darted out of the room as well.

"Wow that was weird," Mission commented as she snagged another piece of bread from Zaalbar's plate.

"/Mission!/" He whined.

* * *

Morii had found an empty storeroom in the base to have a nervous breakdown in. She had her back against a wall and was gulping breath in and out. The woman was dangerously close to hyperventilating but she was freaked out. _One million… how will I ever pay off one million!? I'm dead… I'm so dead… I'm still breathing but really I'm already dead…_ Morii slid down the wall onto her butt and buried her face between her knees. She was too scared to even swear. 

Carth had come looking for Morii to inform her they weren't using Mission to break past the shield. The girl's outburst had just proved she was too young and immature to help them. She had completely lost it and started yelling at Carth for no good reason. Using Mission wasn't a viable option, he just had to convince Morii and they'd figure out something else. Morii was smart, resourceful, she'd think of something. Maybe explosives… Morii liked explosives… He found her in an empty storage room. Carth stopped in shock as he saw Morii huddled on the floor hugging her knees and rocking back and forth slightly. He ran over and knelt in front of her, "What's wrong?"

Morii picked her head up at the sound of Carth's voice. She was stark white and her eyes huge, her pupils had almost completely taken over the blue of eyes. "One million…" she whispered.

Carth put a hand on hers, concerned. She was scared to death! "One million what?"

"One million credits…" she handed Carth the data pad without looking at him.

Carth took it and scrolled through it. When he got to part about the reward for bringing Morii back alive his eyes bugged. Holy fracking shavit! "Oh, Beautiful…"

"I'm dead. I'm soooo dead. I'm dead…"

"No, hey! We'll figure something out! Maybe if you sign up for another tour with the fleet…"

Morii shook her head, "I could sign up for the rest of my natural life and it wouldn't cover it. Oh, Carth, what the hell am I going to do? I'll have to hide for the rest of my life. I'll never come up with that kind of money!"

"Well maybe you could work something out with the Exchange…"

Morii gave a bark of laughter at Carth's suggestion. "This is personal, that's why it's so high. Ketos is pissed and probably just wants to kill me himself… or worse…"

"Well you can't just give up!" Carth protested.

Morii buried her head back into her legs. Carth had never seen her so… hopeless. After a few more minutes of trembling Morii let out a shaky sigh as an inner calm took over and really looked at Carth for the first time. There was nothing she could do. She couldn't even run, not with the quarantine. There was no point in worrying about it now. She'd just have to… well she didn't know what to do besides stay the hell away from bounty hunters. Well as of right now there was only _one _thing she could do. "C'mon," she said in a tired voice, "Let's go get to rescuing your Jedi." She picked herself up and walked to the door.

As Carth watched her go he remembered his original reason for seeking her out. He kept silent. She didn't need anything else on her plate right now; he just hoped that bringing Mission along didn't end up badly.

Morii found Rew the Bek, an Ithorian who had come up with some sort of smelly pheromone concoction that would make a rancor come running from twenty feet. Morii wasn't sure how exactly this was a good thing but took it anyways. Then she went into the cantina to gather Mission and Z to suggest that they all catch a few hours of sleep before heading down the Under City. They all agreed while Mission and Carth made it a point to ignore each other. Morii was too tired to care at this point. She had her own problems dammit. Screw oversensitive teens, screw paranoid pilots, and screw all Jedi. The only one who hadn't given her grief was the Wookiee.

Morii figured six hours should be enough time to get a decent rest and still get to the Under City elevator before the Sith morning shift change. She couldn't sleep though. She laid on Lyn's couch in the dark trying desperately to come up with some way out of this bounty. She could run for the Hutts… but she didn't have a ship. Besides, working for the Hutts was even riskier than the Exchange. She could look at joining a crew… but as soon as they found out she had that ridiculous of a bounty on her they'd probably just turn her in. Maybe she could try some more swoop racing, she was fairly good… no too high profile, especially if she started winning. Maybe she should just cut her losses and head for the Unknown Regions. Sure it was scary and… unknown, but what choice did she have?

Morii could feel someone watching her and looked over at Carth lying on the floor. He was wide awake and watching her. "Hey," she whispered.

"Hey yourself," he replied quietly in deference to the sleeping Wookiee and Twi'lek in the room. He felt for her. Despite the fact that she had been running illegal goods and gotten busted, Carth felt bad for her. He realized that in the short time they had known each other Carth had actually come to care what happened to Morii. It wasn't the type of concern that he had for other soldiers in a team, it was more… personal. It was out of the blue, he shouldn't like Morii. She was smart mouthed, shady, and a bit too quick to kill but for some reason Carth actually _liked_ her. "I've been thinking…" he began.

"Head hurt?" Despite the joke her voice was soft rather than sarcastic.

"Ha ha," he responded, but smiled back. "No, smartass, I've been thinking about that bonus you wanted for finding Bastila. She's crucial to the Republic war effort and… you certainly have been instrumental in getting us this far. I meant what I said yesterday; I never would have made it this far without your help, Morii." Morii looked away in embarrassment but Carth continued. "When this is all over I'll put in a good word to see that you get it. There's no way I can get you a mil, but I can call in some favors… I have some pretty high up friends in the chain of command…"

"Carth," Morii gave him a sad smile, "I don't want you to put your neck on the line for me. I don't want you to get in any sort of trouble with your superiors. Its okay, I'm used to cleaning up my own messes. I'll figure something out." Morii wasn't sure it was something that would work, but she didn't want to see Carth get in trouble because he wanted to help. The guy was a damn do-gooder.

"No, you've more than earned it! I have a feeling things are only going to get worse too. I want to help, and I think I can get you a least half, maybe more. I have friends, Beautiful."

Morii sighed. She was too desperate to say no, but she didn't like the idea of charity. Worse she didn't like the idea of Carth owing someone because he stuck his neck out for her. "I can't say no… Just don't go getting yourself in any kind of trouble over it; I'm not worth that, Carth."

_I think you are_. Carth was surprised at the thought but didn't want to delve too deep into the meaning. "Well I figure having a smuggler owe me a favor could come in handy some day," his teeth flashed in the dark.

"Deal," Morii chuckled. "You ever need glitterstim or illegally modified blasters I'm your girl." She seriously doubted straight laced Carth Onasi would ever have a desire or need for either of those things. Hmm maybe the blasters… "Hey, Carth?"

Carth yawned, "Yeah, Beautiful."

"Thanks… oh and, flyboy?"

"Hmm?"

"Quit calling me that."

Carth chuckled, "You got it, Beautiful."

* * *

Morii was up at what she informed the others was the butt-crack of dawn. Mission was kind enough to point out that you couldn't see the dawn down here. Morii grunted and went to find some caffa before she bit someone's head off. 

They broke out any armor they had along with loading down with weapons, grenades and medical supplies. Morii stuffed her small backpack left over from the _Endar Spire._ She didn't know what they were going to find down there and she wanted to be prepared. Even Mission and Zaalbar had never been to the Under City and Mission knew all the back ways in this part of Taris. Mission informed Morii that she never had a desire to go into the Under City. There was nothing good to steal, and she'd rather not end up a rakghoul.

Carth listened to the two women chatter in silence while he gathered supplies. He was nervous. It was the kind of nervous he always got before going into a dangerous situation. His mind whirled as he tried to plan for every possible contingency. Mostly he was concerned about Mission getting hurt but he was trying to come up with backup plans for any of them going down. Carth just hoped they weren't in the Under City too long.

"Mission do you know if there are any people down in the Under City?" Morii asked with a yawn as she slipped on the armor she had found in a Vulkar apartment. Carth listened while slipping on his own standard medium duty armor while silently lamenting the set he'd lost on the _Spire_.

"Yeah there are," Mission replied as she put on her own battered set. "It's where the government puts all the criminals, along with any political dissidents or anyone they just want to be forgotten. And they stay down there too. I've heard that there are people who've been living in the Under City for generations."

"You mean they just throw them down there? Forever?" Carth was so horrified he forgot he wasn't talking to Mission.

"And their kids…" Mission scowled at the thought, "and their grandkids. Once you go into the Under City you don't come out."

After they were suited up, everyone headed out of the apartment. Morii left a note for Lyn letting her know where they were going and not to expect to see them for a couple of days. Lyn probably wouldn't be happy about it, but the nice thing about Morii's friend is she was very understanding and non-judgmental.

They made their way down the Lower Cities walkways which were almost abandoned at this early hour. The only trouble they ran into was a group of three Vulkars but after the gang members spotted how heavily armed they were and Zaalbar let out a warning roar they took off to seek easier prospects.

The entire group was nervous as they approached the elevator guarded by two Sith guards and several automatic turrets. Morii mumbled a "Play it cool guys," as they approached. They were assumed by the guards to be contract mercenaries after Morii handed them the security papers and were waved through with out any trouble. The four of them stepped into the elevator and the doors slid closed behind them.

The ride seemed to take forever and Morii wondered how far down the Under City was. The lights in the lift flickered repeatedly and all of them gave a nervous look over their heads.

"Jeez I hope those don't go out," Mission muttered as the lights flashed for a third time. None of them fancied making the trip in pitch blackness.

Finally the elevator slowed and came to halt. They settled to the bottom and Morii sucked in a deep breath, "Well, here goes nothing," she said as the doors slid open.


	14. Into The Depths Pt 1

A/N: This would have been up sooner but I had a bit of a crisis. I had to go to Billings, MT for work and took my laptop and memory stick with me to work on my fic. I actually ended up leaving my memory stick in the motel room and I live over 400 miles away! The extremely nice people at the Cherry Tree Inn in Billings found it for me and mailed it. This chapter is dedicated to them. I would have been extremely upset if I had to rewrite everything. As always feedback is oh so appreciated!

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Morii and Carth were in the front portion of the lift and peered into the blackness as the doors of the elevator into the Under City slid open. At first they nothing but the blackness, but they could sure smell it.

"Gnuh!" Carth commented as he held the sleeve of his armor up to his face. Morii, Zaalbar and Mission quickly followed his example. The smell of the Lower Cities had been bad; the smell in the Under City was almost unbearable. "Force, this is horrible," Carth exclaimed.

Morii nodded an agreement. She tried opening her mouth and breathing through that… but the air was thick and putrid and it didn't make the stench any better.

"Oh, I almost forgot," Mission said with a gag of inhaled air as she dug in her bag. She removed something out she said, "Here," as she handed it to each of the group. "Olfactory blockers," Mission explained at their confused look. "One thing most people hear about the Under City is the smell."

They muttered their thanks as they inserted the blockers into their nostrils. Carth was surprised at the girl's foresight. _The Under City is still no place for a kid_, he thought.

The olfactory blockers completely eliminated the horrible stench. Once the four of them wandered out of the elevator their eyes began to adjust to the permanent gloom. The ground was a dusty brown and it appeared they had actually reached the long forgotten surface of Taris. Small bits of fluorescent scrub clung to random patches of the ground and gave a small eerie light. Immense pillars stretched up from the dirt and disappeared into the blackness above them. Weak yellow lights could be seen from fires flickering in the distance. "You suppose that's the inhabitants of the Under City?" Morii asked the group.

Carth shrugged, "Dunno, but if a lot of them are criminals do we want to find out?"

Morii gave a shrug back, "It's the closest we're going to find to a guide in this dump."

They hadn't walked more than five feet when a hoarse voice shouted, "You there! Up-worlder! This is our elevator!" Despite the threat of the words the man's voice trembled.

The group stopped as two small men jogged toward them. They were short, only five one or two and they had the palest skin Morii had ever seen on a human. It was pasty white under the filth that covered their skin. Eyes swallowed in black from being permanently dilated glared at Morii. The hair on their heads was thin and wispy. Clothes, or rather rags hung from their sparse forms. The two would be muggers were possibly the saddest thing Morii had ever seen. Rarely had she ever felt so immediately sorry for anyone.

The second man put fists on his hips, attempting to look intimidating, "Yeah! You wanna use out elevator you gotta pay a toll! Five credits! That's the toll."

"I don't believe this planet," Carth muttered with a shake of the head. "Even the beggars are trying to shake us down!"

Morii dug out ten credits, "Here, five credits each." She held out her hand careful not to touch the disgusting men and dropped five credit chips into each outstretched palm. Carth gave Morii a shocked look and she spat, "What?"

"Nothing," Carth replied with a smile on his face as he gave another shake of the head. "You just surprised me."

Morii huffed, "It was ten stupid credits." The men took off speculating what they could do with their new found wealth. What would have probably bought Morii a meal in the Lower City had seemed like riches to the beggars. Morii felt a wave of pity squeeze her chest.

"That was nice, Beautiful," Carth gave Morii a soft look.

"Oh shut up!" Morii spun around and stomped toward the flickering lights. Had she really become so cold that such a small thing was out of character for her? Morii found she didn't like that. Had survival become all she was about now? When had she stopped even caring about others? Morii realized she was more angry with herself than Carth. Now she had to apologize. Damn!

Mission watched Morii stomp off and shot Carth a dirty look out of loyalty to her new friend. "Hey, Morii, wait up!" she called and trotted after the woman.

Carth looked at Zaalbar in bewilderment, "What the hell did I do?" he asked the Wook.

Carth couldn't understand what Zaalbar said but the helpless shrug made the meaning of, "Don't ask me," perfectly clear.

"Women!" Carth spat and Zaalbar chuffed in laughter. The two males took off to follow the women into the gloom.

They walked in silence for a moment before Morii mumbled to Carth, "Sorry."

Carth quirked an eyebrow, "What was that?"

Despite herself Morii smiled, "You heard me."

"C'mon, say it again…" he grinned.

Morii looked up at the… ceiling? She didn't know what you would call it. She paused and looked back at Carth, "I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry for snapping like that. It's just… some day's I don't like myself very much. I shouldn't have snapped."

"Ah, don't worry about it." Carth waved a hand in dismissal. He could sympathize with not liking one's self.

Morii stared at her boots as they walked and bit her lip in thought. She tried to remember what it was like to not think of her own skin first. Well there had been her group on Nar Shaddaa, and of course Lyn. It seemed like friends… real friends had been few and far between. She tried to remember before Therano and the rest of the group when a piercing pain shot through her head. "Ow!" She dug thumbs into her temples at the pain.

"You okay?" Mission asked while Carth gave Morii a concerned look.

"Yeah… yeah I'm ok," the pain had started to fade as quickly as it shot up. That was weird… Morii was trying to remember what had happened and then… "Ow!" Morii said louder as the pain spiked again.

"Morii?" Carth's tone was worried.

"I'm okay, I just need to stop trying to think," Morii said in a distracted voice while she massaged the sides of her head. She decided to leave it alone for now; she'd worry about it later.

Cautiously they approached the lights and spotted rag tag huts made of bits of long discarded metal and cloth. Groups of people sat around the little fires in attempt to absorb the warmth and light. Most of the people camped here didn't look any better than the two men they had encountered at the elevator, although a minority were a normal height and appeared a bit more filled out. Morii wondered if the short ghostly ones were people who had been born here. She shuddered at the thought of living her entire life in this place.

"This is horrible," Carth murmured his earlier statement as he came up next to Morii and gazed over the camp.

"Yeah," Morii's voice was quiet in reply.

A girl crept out of the darkness and approached them, afraid and unsure. She was very small and pale. It was only when Morii got a better look at her figure that she realized this "girl" was probably older than Mission…Force. Morii saw that the girl appeared curious rather than hostile and lifted a hand in greeting, "Hi."

"You're from the Up-world aren't you?" The girl whispered as her black eyes glittered with excitement. Her voice was soft and weak as she continued. "I've never talked to anyone who's come down from the Up-world before unless they've been banished. Most of the time they ignore us Outcasts."

"What's your name, miss?" Carth asked with a smile.

"I'm Shaleena," she blushed, gave Carth a shy return smile and hung her head.

Morii gave a smile of her own at the girl's reaction to Carth, "Hi, Shaleena. This is Carth, I'm Morii, that's Mission," Mission gave a wave and a smile, "and the chatty one back there is Zaalbar." Zaalbar chuffed. "Do you mind if we ask you some questions?"

Shaleena's head bobbed up and down in excitement, "Oh of course! I'd be happy to help."

"You said something about other Up-worlders?" Carth asked.

Shaleena nodded again. Morii fancied Shaleena's head might pop right off from the force of it. "Oh yes!" Shaleena continued with more nods. Morii resisted the urge to grab the girl's skull to stop her. "I've seen lots of Up-worlders since those big metal pods crashed into the Under City. Most of them were scary, and I didn't talk to them though. Gendar said some of them were Sith but I don't know what that is. He told us we should stay away from them."

Morii and Carth shared a look. "He's right," Carth nodded. "Who's Gendar?"

"Gendar's the leader of our village," Shaleena's voice filled with admiration. "He's very smart and he used to live in the Up-world, but he doesn't like it when I ask him about it," she finished sadly.

"Do you think we could speak to Gendar?" Carth asked.

Shaleena grinned and Morii restrained a wince. The girl was missing a few of her front teeth, probably from bad nutrition. "I can take you to him. Can… can I ask you a question first?" her voice was hesitant.

Carth and Morii responded with a nod. Shaleena asked, "What does the sky look like?"

Carth's stomach knotted. Poor kid, he couldn't believe that the Tarisian government was allowed to get away with treating people like this. They were members of the Republic for Force sake! "It's nothing special," he shrugged in attempt to play it off.

"Oh please! I would like to know," Shaleena begged.

"It's the color of a newborn baby's eyes only much lighter, like when someone goes blind," Morii described softly. She was trying to come up with analogies the girl could associate with. "If there are clouds, they're like little bits of fluff that float along across it and it seems like it goes on forever."

"Aw jeez, I think I'm gonna start crying," Mission whispered to Zaalbar behind them.

Shaleena beamed, "Oh it sounds beautiful, thank you! Follow me," she beckoned at the group with her right hand, "I'll take you to Gendar." Shaleena turned and began walking further into the small village.

Morii's face briefly crumpled for the girl and Carth gave her shoulder a sympathetic squeeze. She returned the gesture with a sad smile. They trailed after Shaleena into the village with Mission making sniffing noises behind them. Zaalbar let off a low rhythmic growl as he patted the Twi'lek girl's back.

Shaleena led them to a lean-to in the center and called out Gendar's name. A tall human man with medium brown skin exited the dwelling. He looked from the group to Shaleena and scowled. "Shaleena! You shouldn't be talking to Up-worlders. I told you they can be dangerous."

"But Gendar, they're nice! They talked to me and they just wanted to ask some questions." Shaleena protested in a hurt voice.

Morii stepped forward, "Excuse me, Gendar, we asked Shaleena to take us to you. We just wanted to ask you some questions; we don't mean you or your village any harm."

Gendar gave them a suspicious look but relented, "Well all right. I suppose with as heavily armed as you all are if you meant to hurt us you would have already done so." He turned to Shaleena, "I'm not angry with you, Shaleena, I was just worried. You need to be careful; most Up-worlders who come down here aren't very nice. Go on, child, and let me talk to them."

Shaleena nodded and turned to Morii and the others, "Thank you," she gave another small smile and wandered off.

Gendar was still shooting them suspicious looks, "So what is it you want to know?"

"Well we're actually looking for the entrance into the sewer system," Carth said.

"Why? The only thing in the sewers is Gamorreans and rakghouls." Gendar scowled again.

"We're looking for a friend of ours, and we think she might be in the Vulkar base," Carth offered. It wasn't exactly the truth, but close enough and who knew, maybe the Vulkars had moved Bastila to their base. Carth was hoping so. "We're looking for the back entrance."

Gendar visibly relaxed. "You're Republic, aren't you? You're looking for that woman they grabbed from one of the Republic pods." He said the last sentence as a statement. "Don't worry," he held up a hand at Carth's suspicious look, "I have no love for the Sith. We heard them grab her several days ago. From the sound of things she put up quite a fight. The pod's not too far off from here."

"Why didn't you stop them?" Carth's asked, irritated.

Gendar snorted, "With what? They have blasters… the only weapon's we have are the one's we can make from salvage that finds its way down here. I may not like the Sith but I'm also not going to send my people into a losing battle with heavily armed gang members to be slaughtered for the Republic."

Carth looked away but didn't reply.

Gendar continued, "The entrance isn't far from here. We have a barricade set up to keep the rakghouls out although some of them manage to get through it from time to time. You can go talk to the gate guard to get out of the village but I warn you if you're bitten he won't let you back in. Once you get a rakghoul bite it's only a matter of hours before you'll transform. We have to keep the rest of the village safe."

"How far is the sewer entrance?" Morii asked.

"Not far," Gendar shrugged, "about a click or two. Watch out for Sith and Vulkars though. Oh, and we had some mercs come through today. I think they work for Davik."

"Why would Davik send anyone down here?" Mission wondered.

"Don't know," Gendar answered, "and I didn't ask. As long as they leave my people alone they can play with the rakghouls all they want."

"Thank you for the information," Carth gave the man a nod. They continued through the village until they came to the gate Gendar told them about. The guard at the gate was arguing with a woman. She had obviously originated from the upper levels of Taris recently as she looked relatively clean and healthy.

"Please open the gate! You can't leave Hendar out there!" The woman grabbed the man's rough tunic and shook him.

"I can't Hester! The rakghoul is too close! You know the rules, he's on his own." The guard pulled Hester's hands off of him.

"No!" she yelled, "they'll kill him!" Hester darted around the guard in an attempt to reach the gate lever but the man caught her around the waist and dragged her back.

"Dammit, Hester! You'll kill us all!"

"I don't care!" Hester was giving ineffectual swats at the guard as he pulled her back, "I won't let him die!"

At this point a man in approximately the same physical condition as Hester ran up to the other side of the gate and hooked his fingers through the grate, "Open the gate!" he screamed. "The rakghoul's right behind me!"

"I can't…ooof!" the guard yelled as he wrestled with Hester. Morii noted that Hester had finally gotten smart and elbowed the guard in the gut. Still he hung onto Hester. "The rakghoul's too close!"

Carth stepped forward with a hand on each blaster butt, "Open the gate and we'll take care of the rakghoul."

Hester and the guard froze to stare open-mouthed at Carth while Morii rolled her eyes. "Carth!" she hissed.

Carth spun on her with eyes blazing, "I'm not just going to sit here and watch that man die!" He turned back to the two Outcasts, "Now open the damn gate!" Carth pulled out his blasters.

"Oh for the fracking love of the Force," Morii muttered as she pulled her vibrosword from its back sheath. Mission and Zaalbar got out their weapons as well.

The guard paused for a second and then nodded, "Alright, but you have to be quick. As soon as you're out there I have to close the gate again." He let Hester go and lowered the lever; "Go!" he shouted.

Carth ran through the gate while the rest of them trailed behind, Morii muttering obscenities about do-gooder Republic soldiers. The gate clanged shut behind them as they got their first look at a rakghoul. The man Hendar had some sort of pole raised in a defensive pose and looked terrified while Carth, Mission and Zaalbar all brought up weapons. Morii ran in first with her blade raised in a high guard.

If Morii thought the Outcasts were pale they had nothing on a rakghoul. Its skin glistened white and appeared to be covered in some sort of clear film. The eyes were shrunk down to pinpoints and the teeth were elongated and sharpened. Morii noted with horror that the rakghoul had a little bit of cloth around its middle… a cloth that looked to be what was left of a Republic uniform.

The rakghoul saw Morii and turned its course from Hendar, taking a swipe with long, razor-like claws. Morii jerked back on instinct as her companions begin firing from behind. She ducked the rakghoul's second swing. It didn't even seem to register the shots that made contact with its skin as it roared in a high pitched cry and lunged for her. Morii jumped to the side into a roll. The rakghoul made another grab for her as she lay prone on her back and she distantly heard Carth cry her name. She brought up her vibrosword as the ghoul came down directly on top of her. The rakghoul impaled itself on Morii's weapon and in its death throes slashed her right bicep with its claws, but she noted with immense relief it hadn't managed to bite her.

The corpse of the rakghoul slid down the length of the sword to rest on top of Morii and she was extremely grateful at that moment for Mission's olfactory blockers. She could feel some sort of lukewarm slimy liquid run down the side of her stomach. Whatever passed for rakghoul blood was leaking from the body onto her and soaking through the side gap in her armor.

She heard Carth, Mission, and Z making frantic inquiries if she was all right and yelled, "Get this ugly bastard off me!" The weight was lifted from Morii and she sighed as Carth and Zaalbar grabbed the corpse. All three of them stared anxiously and Morii scowled at Carth, "Great idea, flyboy."

"Shut up," Carth said as he grabbed her left arm and helped her up. "We thought you were dead." Carth checked her arm, "It's not…?" the look he gave her was horrified.

"No," she answered. "It's just a scratch."

Carth gave a relieved sigh and pulled out a kolto patch and a med kit. "Moronic woman! Would you use a blaster next time?" His voice seethed with anger.

"I suck with a blaster," Morii shot back and then hissed as the antiseptic compound from the patch hit her wound. Despite Carth's scolding his hands were gentle as he doctored the injury.

"Morii, you okay?" Mission asked with wide eyes.

"I'm fine, Mish…ouch!" she said as Carth injected the med pack.

"Well you'll suck even more if you're dead or worse!" Carth rebuked as he finished treating her. When he had seen Morii charge at the rakghoul he thought his heart would stop. When the ghoul went down on top of her he felt it leap into his throat. He had thought for sure the thing was going to bite or kill her.

The guard let them all back through the gate after he was satisfied Morii's wound wasn't a bite and they found Hester crying all over Hendar. Hendar cradled the hysterical woman and murmured comforting words.

"You… you… you… shouldn't have… done that… Hendar!" the woman sobbed. "I thought… you… whu… whu… were… dead!"

"I'm sorry Hes…" Hendar continued to stroke her hair. "I thought I could find some salvage… I just feel so bad about dragging you down here."

"I don't care about that!" Hester responded furiously. She then turned tear filled eyes to Carth and the others, "Thank you for saving him! If he… I don't know what I would have done." Hester buried her head in his chest.

Morii and Mission shared a glance and rolled their eyes at the woman's dramatics. Carth said softly, "You're welcome. I'm just glad we could help."

"Come on Hes, let's go back to the village," Hendar guided Hester back into the gathering of tents.

Morii opened her mouth to make a smart-assed comment but the naked pain on Carth's face stopped her. Quickly she snapped her mouth back shut. Instead she nudged Mission and said, "So Ms. Vao, ready to go play with some more rakghouls?"

"Oh yeah sure, why not," Mission shrugged and then gave a laugh. "How about it, Big Z?"

Zaalbar's growled response was resigned.

"Carth?" Morii came up behind Carth and asked softly. He was watching the Outcast couple walk off into the darkness with a look of longing on his face. "You ready?"

Carth turned toward Morii, "Yeah, let's go."

They went back through the gate and it snapped shut with an ominous clang. Morii gave her shoulder a few experimental rotations until she was satisfied that the injury wouldn't impede her. The kolto was already working its magic through the wound, yay. She pulled her sword out and gave a few practice swings. Carth frowned as he watched her.

"Morii, I really think you should be using a blaster down here," Carth advised.

Morii chuckled, "Unless you want to end up shot in the ass I think I'd better stick with the vibrosword."

Carth raised both eyebrows, "You're really that bad?"

"Oh yeah," she returned with a sheepish smile, "I'm that bad."

Carth frowned but let it drop. He knew from first hand observation how good Morii was with a blade but… he'd just have to watch and make sure she didn't end up in over her head.

They made their way through the gloom which became thicker the further they moved from the village. Mission dug something out of her pack and gave it a smack. A soft green light flooded them and lit a small circular area.

"Nice," Morii commented on the light. "What else you got in there?" she waved a hand toward Mission's bag.

"Grenades… spare power packs, a few med packs, um…" Mission began digging. "Security spikes, some mines and an interface I made for high grade security fields… miscellaneous junk."

Carth was impressed at the girl's foresight again. He was beginning to think he may have underestimated Mission. The power packs, medpacks and grenades he would have thought of, but the light and other items it would have never occurred to him.

They hadn't gotten very far when they say another fire burning in the distance. Morii tilted her head and asked the others, "More Outcasts?"

"/No,/" Zaalbar replied. "/The fire is too big for a campfire./" Zaalbar squinted into the black and then opened his black eyes wide in surprise, "/I think it's one of the escape pods./"

Morii and Carth exchanged wide eyed looks, "There is no way we are that lucky," Morii told him.

Carth looked back at the pod, "Probably not but we should check it out. There may still be someone alive…"

Morii frowned at Carth, "Yeah and they'll probably try to eat us." Carth threw her a look and Morii instantly regretted her words. Evidentially he had spotted the cloth on the rakghoul as well. Those had been his comrades and probably even some his friends. "I'm sorry," she gave him a genuinely repentant look and bit her lip. "That was really out of line. I wasn't thinking."

Carth looked away, "Let's be careful," and he moved off in the direction of the pod.

Morii winced and tuned to Mission, "Next time I open my mouth would you just give me a swift kick in the ass?" she asked the Twi'lek.

"You deserve one," Mission said with a nod.

Morii looked at her feet. "Yeah I know. Sometimes my mouth blasts off without checking with the control tower in my brain first."

Mission smiled, "We'd better make sure the old fart doesn't get himself killed. C'mon," she jerked her head at Carth's advancing figure.

Morii turned to Zaalbar and sighed, "You still love me don't you?" she joked.

Zaalbar said something very unflattering in Shriiwook and Morii winced. _Ouch_, she thought. _Stupid mouth!_

They all caught up to Carth and moved toward the pod. To Morii's astonishment there was someone alive. A man in Republic armor lay prone next to the pod with a few mines around him. Morii grabbed Carth as he started toward the pod and pointed, "Mines."

Carth paused while Mission and Morii stepped forward and took care of the charges. Once the field was disarmed Carth approached the man and knelt down next to him. "Soldier, are you alright?" he asked.

The man was covered in a sheen of sweat and there was a nasty wound on his left thigh that looked like… a large bite. _Shavit_, Carth thought. He had the disease.

"Captain?" the man asked. "Captain, something's wrong with me… I think I'm sick. I… I… those things… they came at me… and they attacked… the other man in the pod… Captain, they _ate_ him!"

Carth squeezed the soldier's shoulder, "Don't worry, son. We're going to get you some help." He stood up and turned to his group. "We need to find that serum, now."

Morii rather thought they should just kill the guy, he looked pretty far gone but she kept this to herself. Who said she couldn't keep her mouth shut? "The only place we're probably going to find that is on a Sith trooper," she said with a sigh. "Someone's going to have to stay with him too." She waved a hand toward the Republic soldier.

Carth grimaced, knowing she was right. They couldn't leave the man alone in case the rakghouls attacked but Carth didn't want to send the rest of the group off with out him. He didn't have any other option though, "I'll go if you three will stay down here with him."

Mission was watching the Republic soldier as he started to shiver violently.

"That's a bad idea, Carth, if you run into more rakghouls you can't take on a whole gang of them by yourself. We should split up two and two," Morii suggested.

The man's eyes glazed over and then rolled into the back of his head.

"Guys…" Mission began. Carth and Morii didn't pay the Twi'lek any attention.

"Anyone that goes out looking for Sith is going to be in more danger. I should be the only one to go, he's my man and I've had the most combat experience," Carth emphasized with a nod.

"Guys…" Mission said a little louder. The injured man was starting to convulse.

"No," Morii shook her head, absorbed in the argument, "What if you run into too big a group? The Sith will take one look at you and know instantly you're with the Republic."

"Morii, this isn't a discussion. You three stay. I'll go after the serum."

"_Guys!_" Mission yelled.

"_What?_" Morii and Carth turned and asked simultaneously.

"I don't think the serum is an issue anymore," Mission nodded at the guard and began to back up as Zaalbar pulled his bowcaster. The other two turned to look at the soldier as he shook and flailed on the ground. Carth threw up an instinctive arm in front of Morii and started pushing her backward.

The group watched helplessly as the man in front of them screamed in agony. The soldier's skin rippled like water across his body and gray slimy patches began to bloom all over. His eyes bled to solid black as his teeth elongated and sharpened like something out of a horror holo. Claws ripped from the skin at the tips of his fingers and muscles began to grow and stretch in places no human should have them. The sound of tearing cloth accompanied the man's cries as his voice began to take on a strange echo, getting louder and higher at the same time. His skull expanded and had been completely consumed by the gray flesh.

When the soldier was completely gone the rakghoul that had replaced him threw back its head and let out a shattering roar that echoed through the depths of Taris.

The group gaped in horror at what had once been human as the rakghoul shook its head in disorientation. Finally it stopped as it looked straight at Morii and Carth. The humans and the ghoul stared for a moment and then the rakghoul charged.

Morii had already pulled her vibrosword and Carth had his blasters out in a flash. Morii ducked to the side and avoided the first swipe of a claw. Several blaster burns bloomed in the filmy white skin and jerked the rakghoul's frame but it kept coming. Morii sent out a slice that caught the ghoul in the arm and it howled in rage and charged her. _What am I, rakghoul bait?_ She idly wondered as the ghoul rushed her.

A black boot shot out from nowhere and kicked the rakghoul in the head. Carth turned with the kick and resumed hammering the thing with shots as it forgot Morii and turned onto him in fury. Seeing her chance Morii stabbed the rakghoul in the center of the back. She hadn't noticed last time how tough rakghoul hides were since gravity had been on her side, but the thing's skin was a schutta to push through. The rakghoul arched its back and let out a death shutter. It fell to the ground as Morii removed her weapon.

"That was kinda dumb, Carth," Morii said in reference to his kick.

"Well that's gratitude," he scowled. "I just saved your ass."

"Granted," Morii countered, "but you almost got yours bit off." _Now that would be a galactic tragedy_, an inner voice commented.

Mission and Zaalbar came up to check if they were alright. Before the two could respond Zaalbar pointed back the way they had just come, "/I think it called some friends with that howl. It sounded like some sort summoning./" Sure enough, five rakghouls charged around the corner and started running right for them.

Zaalbar pushed Mission behind him as they all readied their weapons. Morii had pulled Z aside before they went down to the Under City and asked him to make sure he kept an eye on Mission. Zaalbar had let an amused chuff and responded, "/I always do, as much as she'll let me./" Morii was happy to see that Z was keeping the girl in the back of the group and to her credit Mission wasn't arguing.

The ghouls came at them en mass and the fight began in earnest. Morii hacked, slashed, and dodged as the rakghouls came forward and the three adults formed a semi circle with Mission in the rear providing backup. They had two down rather fast. Zaalbar had given up the bowcaster and pulled a blade from somewhere and both of Carth's blasters were firing faster than Morii could track.

As Z took out the third ghoul, the fourth made a dodge around the Wookiee for Mission. Zaalbar roared and brought down his blade. The rakghoul shrieked in pain at the large cut in its shoulder. Zaalbar brought his vibroblade back up a fraction of a second too late and the ghoul latched onto his arm with its teeth. Mission had her own melee weapon pulled, chopped the rakghoul in the back of the neck and it fell over dead.

Morii as a general rule usually didn't like people firing blasters right behind her but she had found over the past week that Carth was excellent with his. He had a knack for finding just the right openings and a deadly aim. Morii swept up her vibrosword but the ghoul ducked around her at the last minute and lunged for Carth. The thing caught him across the inside half his left thigh and he screamed as the claws sliced through fabric and into flesh. Morii saw Carth fall and brought down her blade with a strength she didn't know she had; splitting the ghoul's skull clean in two.

As soon as the last rakghoul fell Morii dropped her blade and ran for Carth where he lay bleeding on the ground. His left thigh was already soaked in blood. Morii skidded to a halt on her knees as she reached him and rolled Carth over to get a better look at his wound. She could hear Zaalbar also making pain-filled noises and Mission saying something. Morii spared a quick look and saw that Zaalbar didn't appear in immediate danger. She ripped the leg of Carth's pants apart and paled. It looked like the rakghoul's claws had sliced him clear to the femoral artery. If she didn't get the bleeding stopped now he was going to die.

Morii dug out all her med packs and kolto patches and turned back to Carth. She ripped the cloth of his pants clear off, making them into a half pair of shorts.

"Trying to get in my pants, Beautiful?" Carth's voice was thready and weak at the joke.

"Hush," she told him. Morii began cleaning off the blood so she could get a better look at the wound. She clenched her teeth as she got to the worst of it, watching the blood spurt to the surface at an alarming rate. She needed to stop it and she needed to stop it now. Grimly she pushed her finger into Carth's thigh and he let out a cry. "Mission!" she cried. "I need you now!"

"Big Z…" Mission said.

"Carth's dying!" she screamed at the girl.

Mission scooted over to Morii's side and her eyes became wide when she looked at Carth. She swallowed thickly and said, "What do you need?"

"I need that med kit! Get it out and open it." Carth was dangerously pale. This injury was too deep for kolto. The medicine would never spread through his system in time. Morii didn't think he was quite at the critical point yet but he wasn't far off, and she had to improvise. After she saw Mission had the kit open she told her assistant to pull the sterile gloves out of their packaging. "Put on those gloves first," she told Mission. "Okay now put the other set on me." Mission did as Morii instructed. "Good, now had me that tourniquet… no that… that's it." Morii tied the elastic band around Carth's upper thigh. "I need bio adhesive," Morii had to seal the artery shut before Carth bled out.

Mission looked up from the med kit after digging for a moment, "There isn't any," she whispered.

"What!?" Morii took her free hand and checked the kit herself. Sure enough there was no bio adhesive. That's what she got for using a stolen medpack. Digging further she found a pack with sterilized thread and a needle. _Oh bloody fracking hell_, she thought. Resigned Morii instructed Mission to open the pack and thread the needle. "Shavit!" Morii swore. The tourniquet had slowed the blood but she couldn't see anything again. "Get that swabbing cloth out and clean him off. I need to be able to see. Carth's body had begun to shiver from blood loss. "Hang on, flyboy…" she said as Mission continued to clean off the blood.

"Bossy woman…" Carth muttered. He knew he should be alarmed at the panic in Morii's voice but he felt light and tired. Carth realized he was dying but he just couldn't seem to care. His lack of concern more than anything sent a chill of fear up his spine. _Oh that's bad…_ he thought.

Morii laughed but it was forced. She wanted to keep him awake. "That's rich coming from you."

Carth let out a huff of breath that was probably supposed to be a laugh.

"C'mon, Carth, stay awake!" She gave him a shake and he groaned in response. "Mish, give me the needle." Morii held out her right hand and Mission gave her the curved threaded needle. Morii bent down and bit her lip. The angle was awkward but she couldn't see a way to make it better. She needed to get the artery stitched up fast.

"This is gonna hurt," Morii mumbled as she leaned forward and put her face level with the injury. She put two of her left fingers back into the wound and Carth grunted. She used them to push apart the layers of fat and muscle, felt for the opening and closed her eyes.

Morii had to do this part by feel. It was too small to do by sight and she was no medical droid, although she'd give all her credits for one right now. Once again she used her fingers to find the opening and inserted the needle. Carth let out a yell and jerked. "Mission, pin his leg down," Morii instructed with her eyes closed. She couldn't afford to screw this up. The flesh under her hands stopped squirming and Morii began to stitch it up.

As she progressed through the tiny stitches Morii began to actually see the wound in her mind. She could see the red color of the flesh, the black of the thread and the glint of the needle as it became coated in blood. She worked the impossibly tiny sutures over and over until she sensed she had come to the end of the wound. Carefully Morii tied the last stitch off and opened her eyes. Still in a semi-trance state she said softly, "Mish, get the scissors and cut the thread." Mission grabbed the scissors and cut the end of the thread off.

Morii moved her hands to the tourniquet and told Mission, "If you believe in any Gods, start praying." Morii untied the tourniquet and held her breath. If she had done this wrong, now they'd know. Morii froze as she waited for blood to start spurting again from Carth's leg. When there was only a small bit of seepage from the rest of the cut she let out her breath in a whoosh. The stitches held. She indulged in a moment of trembling and then had Mission hand her more of the kolto drenched cloths. Morii cleaned the rest of the blood from the area and made sure there wasn't any dirt. She needed to do something about the rest of the wound to Carth's thigh though. "I need more thread," she told Mission.

"There is no more," Mission said nervously, "that was all of it."

"Fracking son of a kath!" Morii swore. The man lying on the ground chuckled softly. "Nice to see you're still with us," she told Carth.

"You have the worst mouth," Carth told her. He was feeling a bit giddy and definitely light headed.

Morii thought fast and came up with a temporary solution. She removed the gloves, cleaned her hands and said, "Mish, help me get this armor off." Mission helped her unbuckle the straps to her armor and Morii peeled off the two pieces. After she got the armor off she peeled off her shirt and shivered as she knelt on the ground in only her bra.

Carth watched the whole thing while prostrate on the ground with a silly grin. "Must be my lucky day," he said while he watched Morii strip. "First you rip off my pants and now you're taking off your shirt… but I'm not sure I'm up for it, Beautiful."

"Dream on, flyboy," she retorted. Morii realized he was probably loopy from loosing a couple pints and was infinitely glad he was still here to harass her. As Morii tore apart her shirt she realized something that shocked and scared her. In a very short time Carth had began to worm his way into a category that Morii had very few people in. It was the same category Lyn inhabited. Carth was becoming one of those people she would do just about anything for. Someone she actually cared what happened to. What's worse is Morii had a sneaking suspicion that Mission was beginning to fall in that category as well. It had happened so fast that it frightened Morii.

Morii threw aside the piece of the shirt that had been covered in rakghoul blood and made the rest into long strips. "Okay, Mish, I'm going to need your help here."

"Okay," Mission moved up next to Morii. "What do you need me to do?"

"I need you to hold the wound closed for me while I bandage it." Carth was going to have a hell of a scar and possibly some muscle damage, but the second could be easily fixed with minor surgery and the first could also if Carth was vain. Morii snorted to herself as she imagined Carth telling all his soldier buddies how a woman had literally ripped his pants off during his adventures on Taris.

"What's so damn funny?" Carth asked curiously. He lifted his head to glare but it flopped back to the ground.

"Nothing," she replied. "So what are you going to tell all your fleet friends when they see your nifty new souvenir from Taris?" Mission held the wound closed while Morii began wrapping the remnants of her shirt around his leg.

"I'll tell them how a beautiful dangerous woman ripped all of my clothes off," Carth began laughing hard at this and even Mission giggled.

"Well I did threaten to cut your choobies off…" Morii joked as she worked.

Carth began to laugh harder interspersed with "ow's". "Oh Force, Beautiful, don't make me laugh it hurts."

Morii finished and injected a med pack to dull the pain and prevent infection. Carth's body visibly relaxed as the medicine worked through his system. With a sigh Morii wiped two stray hairs away from her face with the back of her wrist. "We need to get him to a safe place. We should probably head for the Outcast Village."

"We can't," Mission's lower lip trembled as her lekku hugged her shoulders. "Big Z's been bit."


	15. Into the Depths Pt2

AN: Sorry about the shortness but I wanted to finish up the chapter. Thanks for all the kind reviews and the alert adds! It keeps me at it. I think this might be the last update for a while. I confess I'm actually several chapters ahead but I like to stay that way as I often go back to tweak or change stuff that I change my mind on. So this might be it for a few weeks 'till I can at least get a few more rough drafts hammered out, and of course the holiday is coming up (gulp in-laws!). I'm putting out there for a beta reader if anyone's interested. I _really_ need someone who's good with mechanics. My spell-check is not perfect and I have a comma and semi-colon obsession. Pointing out plot holes and OOC is a plus as well. If you're interested please just shoot me an email. As always I love feedback so never hesitate to leave me some and I hope you enjoy the chapter!

* * *

After she had cleaned herself Morii went to check on the Wookiee. Sure enough a rakghoul had gouged the hell out of Zaalbar's arm with its teeth. Z was letting out small whimpers of pain as the poison worked through his system. Tears leaked from Mission as she petted the Wookiee's head and stroked his fur. 

Morii closed her eyes and pressed the heel of her hand against her forehead in frustration. Carth had passed out and was too badly injured to be of any use regardless. Finally Morii came up with a plan. It was a stupid plan but it was all she had.

"Okay, Mish, here's what I want you to do," Morii told the teenager. "I'm going to go look for the serum. I need you to stay here to guard Carth and Z." Mission gave the older woman a tearful nod. Morii continued, "Set up mines all around you… as many as you can. Keep them comfortable and give Z a couple of those poison antidote packs we picked up from Zelka. Hopefully they'll slow down the poison. If Carth wakes up make him drink some water. He's lost a lot of fluid and he needs to try and replace it. You see anything moving out there you shoot first, got it?" Mission gave a nod at the instructions. Morii knelt down and grabbed Mission's shoulder, "I'm counting on you, Mish. Keep them safe for me."

"I won't let you down!" Mission stuck out her lower jaw as she met Morii's eyes.

"Good girl," Morii gave the Twi'lek a nod back and stood. She grabbed her sword and Carth's small knife from his boot and made her way from the camp while Mission proceeded to set up the mine's around the trio.

Morii proceeded into the black pit. She squirmed a bit at the chaffing to her skin from the bare armor top but there was no way she was running around the Under City with no protection. She had to find a Sith fast. She didn't like the idea of leaving Mission all alone and if Z started to turn… Morii wasn't sure she trusted the girl to do the right thing.

Random shrieks in the distance made eerie echoes through the air as she crept into the dark. Morii felt the beginnings of panic and quickly stomped them down. _For Force sake! I'm a grown woman!_ With the company of the others the dark hadn't bothered Morii. Now that she was all alone terror crept up her spine like an ancient memory. Morii couldn't even sleep alone without a light on; her fear of the dark was so bad. Her hands began to tremble violently as the lack of illumination began to press her down like a giant weight. It was coming for her! She could hear it slithering in the background like some kind of giant snake. _No no no no no no!_ her mind screamed.

Several minutes had gone by before Morii realized that she was crouched against a large piece of rusted metal. She had wrapped her arms around her knees and was rocking back and forth mumbling "no" over and over again. _Stupid!_ the voice in her mind scolded. _You could have been eaten by a rakghoul by now!_ Morii took a deep breath and then another. Finally the panic died down to a tolerable level. She didn't have time for this. She had Sith to kill.

Morii rose still a bit shaky and followed along the battered path through the gloom. She was betting that any Sith soldiers would keep to the trail as well. For about half an hour she made her way, ducking into shadows and crouching into any protection she could find before moving on. So far she had been able to travel unmolested. She discovered the reason why a minute later.

Morii stopped and darted behind a tall pillar as the sounds of battle ahead reached her ears. Cautious, she made her way toward the noise. Peeking around an empty container she saw a Sith patrol locked in combat with a group of rakghouls. They must have been the ones who had cleared out most of the beasts in the area. She watched the Sith take out the group of ghouls one by one but they were taking heavy losses. Morii hoped they'd just all kill each other and make her task a whole lot easier.

Morii almost got her wish. There was one ghoul and two soldiers left when the rakghoul jumped one of the Sith and tore out the soldier's throat. The last remaining patrol member shot the rakghoul point blank in the head with a rifle at close range and the monster's head exploded. Morii palmed the knife she had swiped from Carth in her left hand while holding her vibroblade in her right.

Jumping up Morii darted toward the Sith, "Are you alright?" she yelled.

"What the hell are doing down here, civilian?" he asked the woman while still panting. "This is a restricted area."

"Hey!" she protested, "I've got all the proper papers…"

"Oh," the Sith interrupted, relieved. "Your one of the trackers they sent. They should have given you an armed escort, ma'am, it's nasty down here."

"I'm fine," Morii replied as she moved up next to him, her small knife hidden behind her thigh. "But I've ran out of serum," she said hopefully.

"Bad luck that," the Sith shook his head, "but I've only got three doses left myself. Tell you what, let's head back up together and hopefully we should be able to handle anything that comes our way."

"What about them?" she gave a nod toward the corpses of the Sith's companions.

"They were all out; those damn rakghouls have been vicious. I think all the activity in the area has stirred them up. But don't worry, ma'am, I'll watch your back." He gave a nod of affirmation. The woman in front of him didn't appear relieved at his affirmation. She continued to stare at him with pale eyes and no expression on her face.

The small woman took a step toward the patrolman and came to stand right in front of him, still staring with those cold eyes. The bit of a woman was starting to make him feel a bit nervous and he shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "Ma'am?" he asked.

Morii hit the switch on the knife and in one blow stabbed the blade into the Sith man's throat. The soldier had no time to react as blood sprouted and he made gurgling noises. The Sith man dropped the rifle in his hands and clawed at his throat. Morii watched him fall to the ground as a pool formed around the patrolman's corpse.

"Three is more than I need," she told the body in a cold voice and began digging through pouches for the serum.

* * *

Mission stoked Big Z's head while he drifted into unconsciousness as she watched the darkness Morii retreated into. Mission was scared, scared that Carth would die, scared that Big Z would turn into a monster where once her best friend had been, and scared that Morii wouldn't come back just like her brother. No, Morii would come back, Mission assured herself. Morii would never just leave Mission here and Morii was smart and brave and she'd find the rakghoul serum. Mission decided she would do what Morii would do; she'd shoot any bastard rakghouls or Sith that came near her friends. 

Mission spotted something moving in the distance, stood up and lifted her glow stick a little higher. The green illumination caught the reflection of white skin and Mission grabbed her blaster. The lone rakghoul stared at her while weaving back and forth in indecision. Mission dropped the blaster, grabbed a grenade and threw it yelling, "Get the hell out of here!"

The grenade hit its mark and the ghoul howled before it pitched forward dead.

"Nice shot, kid." A raspy voice said from her left.

Mission turned and saw Carth was awake and looking at her. Mission retrieved her blaster and set it next to Carth as she grabbed some of their water. "Morii said you should drink something… and I'm not a kid." She informed the old guy.

Carth let a low laugh and Mission frowned as she tilted the bottle for him to drink. Carth sucked down half the bottle's contents before he stopped. He then glanced over at Big Z lying on the ground letting out soft labored grunts and Carth let out a frustrated sigh. "She went to find the serum, didn't she?" he asked Mission.

Mission nodded and looked away as her eyes began to fill again. If she lost Big Z… "Hey, Carth?"

"Yeah?" Carth rested his head back on the makeshift pillow of Morii's pack and watched Mission.

"I… I'm sorry I yelled at you. And that I called you old." She added as an afterthought.

Carth laughed at that, "I'm sorry too. It's just I didn't want to see anything happen to you, but I shouldn't have overreacted like that. I'm just wound a little tight. Not surprising with all we've been through… but I shouldn't have taken it out on you."

"I'm just sick of everybody treating like a helpless little girl!" Mission cried. "I'm not helpless, and I'm not little."

"Mission, look at where we are, look at what you're doing here. You definitely not just along for the ride, we need you… and I'm sorry I didn't see that before." The look Carth gave her was sincere and Mission beamed.

"You mean that don't you?" she asked Carth. When he nodded she said, "No one's ever told me that before. Not even Big Z… he's not one for small talk."

Carth gave a shrug from where he lay, "It's no big deal, and I know how it is. Sometimes kids just need a few words of encouragement."

Mission's face turned purple in anger and her mouth hung open as she glared at Carth. The corners of Carth's mouth twitched in response. "Ha ha," she said sarcastically. "You're pretty funny, geezer."

They sat for awhile with Mission giving Carth water at every chance while asking him about some of the planets he had been too. Mission couldn't even remember a planet besides Taris, although she knew she had lived somewhere before her current home. She liked hearing Carth talk about the different planets he had visited and hoped someday she's get to see them too.

Carth entertained Mission while the kid forced massive amounts of water on him. Apparently Mission was taking Morii's instructions very seriously. If the girl didn't stop trying to drown him he was going to have a full bladder on top of everything else. Actually Carth didn't feel too bad considering the gaping hole in his leg. It hurt like a schutta but he felt alert and aware if tired. It was surprising that he didn't feel worse, he rather thought he should. Carth had felt guilty about yelling at Mission. True he didn't want to see the young Twi'lek in danger but if she had been living on the street her whole life it wasn't like danger was a new experience for the kid. Carth was glad she had Zaalbar to look after her at least. The thought reminded Carth of Morii's absence and he hoped she showed up soon, and with the serum.

Not five minutes later Morii trotted up and yelled, "Mish!" to warn of her approach.

Mission leaped up, "You're back!" She then helped Morii clear a path through the mine's around the camp.

Morii spotted the dead rakghoul and grinned at the Twi'lek, "I knew you wouldn't let me down. Get me a wet cloth would you?" Morii still had a little blood on her left hand from the Sith that she hadn't managed to get off.

"Okay!" Mission paused to give Morii a worried look. "You found it, didn't you?" she asked in a shaky voice.

"Yeah I got it," Morii took the cloth from Mission and cleaned off the rest of her hand. She spotted Carth was awake and asked, "How do you feel?" as she moved over to Zaalbar. Morii pulled out the serum and injected it into the Wookiee. Zaalbar's shaking immediately started to subside as he woke and Mission grabbed him in a fierce hug.

"Considering I almost had my leg ripped off, pretty damn good." Carth gave her a serious look but it quickly turned mischievous, "And I'm sorry I missed most of the garment tearing." Carth had a vague memory of Morii ripping his pants apart and taking off her shirt. He remembered thinking at the time that it certainly wasn't the worst way to die.

"Bantha ass," she retorted with a wide grin. She came over to check on Carth's leg.

As Morii bent over Carth's lap he knew his blood pressure wasn't too awful bad as he became uncomfortable at her nearness. Bit's of her dance with Lyn flashed in his head as she checked his leg. Thankfully she moved off before Carth embarrassed himself and she could notice.

Mission doctored Zaalbar's arm and the tall Wookiee stood up. Except for the injury to his arm Zalbaar seemed no worse for wear. Apparently the serum worked incredibly fast.

Morii's grin faded as she looked Carth over. "Do you think you can move?" she asked. "I want to get out of here before anymore of those rakghouls show up."

Carth sat up, "I think I can manage… with help."


	16. Ups and Downs

A/N: Sorry about the wait on this! Between the holidays and a particularly disturbing family wedding (scary inlaws of inlaws!) I haven't had a chance to update. But really I am still working on it! Normally I split the chapters up since they tend to be a bit big but I figured after waiting so long I owed you all the whole shebang. I also figure if you've read up to this point you wont mind extra scrolling.

Huge thanks to Ullieand for the beta who made this much better than it was!

* * *

Morii and Mission supported Carth as they made their way back to the Under City village gate while he hopped along on one leg. Zaalbar covered them with his bowcaster except for when Carth asked the Wookiee to help him to corner so he could relieve himself after Mission had shoved all that water in him. They arrived at the gate to the Outcast village mercifully rakghoul free. It took some time, however, to get the guard to let them in due to Zaalbar's rather obvious bite. Finally Gendar was summoned and Morii held up the serum to the shocked leader. They were ushered into the village after that without further problems.

Morii thought she might cry with relief when Gendar told her that the village actually had a trained healer. The women helped Carth along to the healer's slightly bigger hut while Zaalbar trailed behind. As soon as they got inside they lowered Carth onto a shabby but clean pallet while an elderly woman looked him over. The area was surprisingly sterile. When Mission mentioned this, the healer told them that she got first of any rations of clean water in the village. Gendar had made her little makeshift clinic top priority for the village. Morii thought Gendar was a smart man. He led his people well and was able to see the big picture of what they needed most. The only downside was Morii had to pay Gendar in a sample of the rakghoul serum. He was hoping they might be able to produce it down in the Under City, although the look on his face said he didn't think it likely. Morii realized this screwed her plans for the serum since there was only one sample left but she'd worry about it later.

The healer, named Jerla, stood as she finished looking Carth over. "That's some of the best stitching I've ever seen, young lady," she told Morii. "I'm frankly amazed that you managed to do that. Such tiny sutures should be impossible without droid help. You want a job?" the woman cracked.

"No thanks," Morii said vehemently but with a smile. "That's way too stressful to do on a regular basis." Morii noticed her hands were starting to shake as her adrenaline high wore down and clasped them tightly together behind her back.

"Well too bad for me," Jerla replied.

"Amazingly; as far as I can tell there's no serious muscle damage either, but I'm going to sew up the rest of his leg proper. This time we'll put you to sleep for it," she told Carth. "What minor muscle damage there is the kolto should knit in a couple of days. You are one lucky young man to have such a talented friend."

Carth snorted, "Ma'am, if you want her you can have her." He threw Morii a wink and she gave him a mock scowl in return.

Jerla chuckled. "I'm sure a handsome young thing such as yourself has much more to offer a pretty girl like her." She raised her eyebrows at Carth and patted him on the shoulder, "Time to go to sleep now, boy." Jerla gave Carth an injection and his eyes fluttered for a moment and then he was still.

Morii sat down hard as Jerla began to work on the unconscious Carth. Mission had gone off a while ago to explore the village, with Z shadowing her as always. The healer had given Zaalbar's injury a cursory examination and patched him up with some kolto but the Wookiee's wound had already begun to mend. Apparently Wook's were fast healers and Zaalbar declined any more medical treatment.

Morii watched the medic work on Carth and hugged herself, trying to quell the tremors that were shaking her. Now that everything was all right she was beginning to break down and wished she could find a place to do it privately, but the healer's tent was where what few guests the village had were sent to stay.

"You doin' okay there, sweetie?" Jerla asked as she worked. "I can give you something to help you relax," she offered.

"N… no… thanks," Morii chattered. "It'll hap… hap… happen sooner or lay… lay… later anyways…" Morii knew this was just the aftershock. It wasn't physical as much as mental and she loathed the thought of taking any much needed supplies from the healer for something so trivial.

"Your choice," Jerla countered. "I'm not one to nag. Don't worry about your boyfriend here, you did a good job. He'll be fine and good as new in a day or so."

"He… he… he's not muh…muh…my boyfriend," Morii rocked back and forth to try and ease her shaking.

Jerla laughed, "Okay, girly, whatever you say. I saw the way you two looked at each other. Hmph if I was forty years younger you might have some competition on your hands… hah!"

Morii laughed with chattering teeth as she began to feel tears stream down her cheeks. "If…if… you want him… tuh… tuh… take him lady!"

Jerla chuckled as she finished the last of her stitches. "I'm too old for a young buck like this, child."

She cleaned off Carth's thigh and rewrapped the wound. Jerla then went over and patted Morii's shoulder as she rocked, "You need anything, sweetie, you let me know. I have a feeling right now you just want some privacy so I'll be around the village. He won't wake up for the rest of the night," she gave a jerk of the head back toward Carth and then walked out of the hut.

Mercifully alone, Morii held a clenched fist against her mouth to muffle the sobs that racked her body as finally by herself, she let out the stress of the past couple of hours. Images flashed through her mind of Carth bleeding out on the ground, Mission crying over Z's still form, her own hand snaking out to stab the Sith through the throat and the blood that poured over her fist. Then she remembered the darkness. She bent double as she sobbed and saw an image of her putting her fingers to Carth's throat and finding it cold and still. An image of Mission being attacked by a rakghoul as she cried out "Big Z!" flashed and Morii sobbed harder.

This is why she hated caring about people. This is why she stayed away from it. It just hurt too damn bad when you lost them. Morii continued to rock and stifle her sobs as images of others flashed in her brain. Trash-talking street walkers whose bodies had been mutilated and tortured before they died; small, mousy urchins that darted in and out of alleys as they snuck small hands in and out of pockets; the building where her parents lived smoldering and half collapsed. Finally she saw the smirk on Therano's face as he buried the knife in her gut… Morii gave up and let the memories take her.

Finally she was reduced to sobs and hiccups while she sniffed thickly. Feeling drained and weak she took off the top portion of her armor along with her boots and unbound her hair while the occasional small snivel escaped. She desperately wanted comfort right now. Remembering Jerla's parting words of assurance that Carth would be out for a good long while she crawled into the blankets next to him. Morii would move herself before he woke up… she just needed the reassurance of another body right now. She curled her body up against Carth's warmth and he let out a sigh in his sleep. Morii thought she saw the corner of his mouth lift just a little and felt a little piece of her crack inside. She fell asleep nestled against Carth and suffered no nightmares. Instead she had dreams of Carth's thigh being made of clay and her hands were molding the flesh back together.

* * *

The first thing Carth noticed was that he was pleasantly warm. The next thing he noted was that the softness against his side was even warmer. Carth reached an arm and pulled the softness against him where it snuggled obligingly. He spread his palm over a bare back and sighed in contentment. She smelled really good and let out a soft sigh of her own. Carth felt bits of hair brush his cheek and dipped his head to take a fuller breath of the enticing scent. His face burrowed and he felt an unbelievable softness brush his lips. He gave the sweet skin at the base of her neck a small kiss and then a longer one, drawing the flesh slightly into his mouth and suckling at it. He heard Morii give a low moan in response. 

_I must be dreaming._ He was bound to have one sooner or later with all the frustration he'd been enduring lately. Carth was rather enjoying the dream and moved his hand up the skin of Morii's back, reveling in the feel of it. He continued to minister kisses and nibbles to her throat and she made small happy noises in response. A hand pressed against his chest and began to move upward, becoming tangled in his hair. Morii pressed herself against him and Carth began to move down to her shoulder.

"/Mission, bring the plates. Morii and Carth will want breakfast./"

Carth froze at the sound of Zaalbar's voice and felt Morii do likewise as the two of them came fully awake. This wasn't a dream. _Oh… Frack!_ Carth thought. He tilted his head up and found himself looking directly into Morii's startled eyes.

Morii jumped back from Carth lightning fast as her brain finally caught up with her body. Her mouth opened and closed a couple of times as she stared in horror at him while her blood still thrummed through her veins. "Sorry," she squeaked and bolted out of the room in nothing but her bra and pants.

"/Morii, don't you want breakfast?/" Zaalbar's surprised voice floated back into the hut where Carth lay stunned. The first couple of seconds he just wished she's come back and then the embarrassment sunk in. He had obviously scared and horrified her. Carth flopped back down on his pallet and smacked a palm to his forehead and then ran it down his face.

"Smooth, Onasi… real smooth," Carth muttered to himself. He'd have to find her and apologize for his behavior later. Why the hell hadn't she put on a shirt anyways?

Morii brushed past Mission and Z with her face aflame. She hadn't meant to do that. She had meant to be gone before Carth woke up. Her face began to burn even more as she remembered the attention he had been giving her neck. Force… well it had been awhile and Carth wasn't exactly a Gammorean, despite what she had called him a couple of days ago.

A couple of the Outcasts gave her strange looks as she wandered by without a shirt but she ignored them. It was their problem anyways. Nudity taboos were a Republic hang-up. Of course, crawling into bed without a shirt with Republic pilots was probably not the best way too keep a strictly working relationship with said pilot. Dammit! She was becoming attracted to Carth. Morii liked him. Yeah he was distrustful and moody, but the guy pushed her buttons. _No… no relationships_, she reminded herself. Relationships lead to obligations and complications… and pain. Morii wondered how long Mish and Z were going to hang out in the healer's home. She and Carth were going to have to have a talk.

Morii wandered around the permanently dark camp for about an hour in an attempt to quell her embarrassment, while the Outcasts sent amused looks at her state of undress. Finally she decided to head for the makeshift medical center if for no other reason than she was getting cold. Well that and the fact that she was barefoot. The Under City was chilly even with the small fires the inhabitants kept burning. As she came to the entrance she could hear the voices of her three companions inside. Morii took a deep breath and entered the room.

All three of them looked up at Morii as she came inside and Morii was just a little pleased to notice that Carth blushed when he spotted her. Evidentially he was just as embarrassed at their earlier encounter as she was.

"Hiya, Morii," Mission waved and then frowned at the woman. "Hey, why don't you have a shirt yet?" she asked.

"Because I didn't bring a change of clothes with me," Morii sighed and felt her cheeks begin to heat up.

"I got an extra shirt, you want it?" Mission asked.

Morii smiled gratefully, "You brought an extra shirt with you into the Under City?" she asked in surprise.

"Yup," Mission grabbed her bag and began digging. "I always cram as much junk as I can into this thing… never know what you're going to need. Here it is!" Mission triumphantly pulled a pretty but small short sleeved green shirt from her pack and handed it to Morii.

"Thanks," Morii grabbed the shirt and started putting it on, "I think I'm scaring the locals."

The shirt fit… barely. Mission was a lot less well endowed than Morii and it was terribly tight across her chest. It also left a gap between the bottom and her pants, showing peeks of the thin line of her abdomen between. If Morii had been planning on going out dancing at a club she would have loved it, but it wasn't really practical for taking on Sith and rakghouls. At least it'd keep her armor from rubbing her raw.

"/Would you like breakfast? I saved you some./" Zaalbar held a plate out to Morii and stared at her with large solemn eyes. She was surprised the Wookiee had done it as she had seen Z's appetite.

"Thanks, Z." Morii gave the Wookiee a small but confused smile. He was throwing her weird looks, or maybe it was all that hair.

"/I would like to speak to you when you are finished eating if you don't mind. It's very important./"

"Uh… okay," Morii gave him a bewildered look and sniffed her food. It looked alright. Eating food in the Under City seemed a dicey prospect but she didn't see any signs of mold or rot. Morii was starving and decided to risk it.

They sat in the cozy tent and finished their breakfast while Mission filled the silence with chatter. She was talking about all the different people she had met in the village. It seemed that most of the occupants were political dissidents. There were a few criminals, but Gendar was very strict about the rules governing the small group and any who broke them were immediately thrown outside the gate to fend for themselves. Zaalbar simply sat in silence as Mission went on. Morii wondered if most of their relationship was based on the fact that Mission loved to talk so much and Zaalbar talked so little. Carth and Morii snuck embarrassed looks at each other throughout the meal, trying to gauge what the other was thinking.

After they finished breakfast Morii was going to ask the others to go outside so she could talk to Carth, but Zaalbar again asked her to speak with him. Morii had a bad feeling but exited the hut with the Wookiee.

Carth caught bits of their muffled conversation outside the hut. Mostly it was Zaalbar who was speaking and Carth couldn't make much of it out. He had been trying to learn a bit of Shriiwook with Mission and Zaalbar's help, but it was slow going.

Carth heard Morii yell, "_What?_" and looked toward the entrance in curiosity.

Zaalbar chuffed something back.

Carth looked over at Mission and the girl's mouth had dropped open. "What are they talking about?" he asked the Twi'lek.

"Oh no! Now wait a minute, Z…" Morii protested.

Zaalbar interrupted Morii his voice growing louder.

"No! _No_! No, I don't want that. Seriously it's no big deal!" Morii said.

Zaalbar roared something and Morii yelled, "Stop! Stop it right now! Dammit, Zaalbar! No!" Zaalbar continued in what almost sounded like a chant. Many of the noises were repetitive. "I don't want a fracking Wookiee following me around!"

"Wow," Mission breathed. "That's major."

"What's going on out there?" Carth asked. Morii's voice sounded a bit panicked but Carth couldn't imagine Zaalbar threatening her.

Before Mission could answer Carth, Morii stormed back into the healer's hut. "Do you know that big walking carpet just did?" she yelled at Mission.

Carth had a bewildered look on his face as Zaalbar entered. The Wookiee looked from Carth to Mission and roared, "/In the presence of all I swear my life-debt!/"

Everyone started talking at once. Morii was yelling at Zaalbar and he was yelling right back, Mission was yelling over Morii asking Zaalbar if he was sure about his decision, and Carth was yelling at everyone demanding to know what the hell was going on.

"Forget it, Zaalbar, it's not going to happen so take it back!" Morii yelled at the Wook.

"Now wait a sec," Mission interrupted. "It's sacred vow! He can't just 'take it back!'"

"_What the frelling hell is going on?!_" Carth roared in his best parade ground voice. Everyone stopped and stared at him for a moment. Zaalbar started talking first but Carth interrupted him, "Zaalbar, with all due respect I still can't understand most of what you say."

"That… _furball,_" Morii hissed and pointed at Z, "just swore a life-debt to me!"

"Hey!" Mission said, irritated, "It a great honor! Be nice!"

"I don't want the honor! I don't want the life-debt! So forget it. If you think I'm taking you with me, Z, you're insane! And what about my fleet tour?" she asked Zaalbar. "I don't think the fleet is going to go for me bringing a big Wookiee bodyguard along."

"/It doesn't matter, I'll follow you if you don't let me come with,/" Zaalbar crossed his arms in front of his chest and managed to make his furry face look quite stubborn.

"And where Big Z goes, I go!" Mission interrupted. "I almost lost him once!"

Morii stared back and forth between Mission and Z, let out a scream of frustration and for the second time that morning stormed out of the room.

Carth looked at Mission, "What's a life-debt?"

* * *

Morii hadn't been storming around the village for five minutes when she bumped into Jerla. The healer was on her way to check on Carth's leg. Morii informed the old woman that it could rot and fall off for all she cared, and then took off. Jerla chuckled and said something about a lover's spat. 

Carth had been questioning Zaalbar through Mission when the healer came in. "Well I can tell you this, Zaalbar, you've got your hands full trying to keep _her_ alive," he chuckled at the Wookiee.

Apparently Wookiees had some sort of tradition that if another risked their life to save yours then the Wookiee was honor-bound to swear a life-debt. Basically they would follow the person they had sworn the debt to and protect them for the rest of their lives or until their charge died; whichever came first. The life-debt was a cultural thing and Carth could respect that. Of course, if he was the one with a future of Zaalbar constantly looming over his shoulder Carth might be a bit less understanding.

"Good morning all," Jerla interrupted in a cheery greeting. "Time to check that leg of yours, my boy," she told Carth.

Carth put on his best smile for the healer. "Well, ma'am, I appreciate that but it's feeling much better. I don't think there's a need for you to bother. I wouldn't want to take up any more of your time." He wanted to get going and he had a feeling that Jerla wasn't going to let him move for another day at the very least.

Jerla gave a snort, "Save it, boy. I'm too old to fall for flattery; I don't care how pretty you are. Now off with the blanket."

Mission ducked out, making comments about naked old people and Zaalbar followed with the intention of tracking down Morii and continuing his argument regarding his life-debt duties.

As Jerla was examining Carth's wound her eyes began to widen. Carth watched her nervously. He really was feeling pretty good all things considered but maybe there was something serious wrong with his leg.

"You're not a Jedi are you, boy?" her thin white eyebrows were threatening to disappear into her hairline.

Carth laughed. "Definitely not, ma'am."

Jerla grunted. She applied another kolto patch and threw the blanket back over Carth's leg. "Well that's some of the fastest healing I've ever seen and I've seen a lot." The healer began to shake her head. "You are one lucky young man. I suppose I'll have to let you go off to wherever you and your friends were heading. You'll have a limp for the next day or so but nothing too serious." She shot Carth a suspicious look. "Just go easy on it."

Jerla chuckled, "Not that you'll listen. Gendar told me you and your friends were planning on heading into the sewers."

The healer rose and brought out a pack she had brought into the tent with her. "Well you can't very well go crawling around in the sewers with half a pair of pants." She pulled some dark tan pants out of the pack and handed them to Carth. "Just be careful down there," and with a smile she exited the room.

Carth stood slowly, but only needed a short table for help as he put on the pants the village healer had brought him. He still needed to find Morii and apologize for this morning. Carth really hoped she didn't hold it against him. In fact she hadn't seemed to mind the encounter at all until Mission and Zaalbar had interrupted.

Carth toyed with the idea of asking Morii about meeting him after they got out of this mess. The fact that he was considering it shocked him and made his insides squirm. Carth couldn't even remember the last time he had thought of asking a woman on a date. _That's not true you remember damn well the last time…_ Carth thought. He dismissed the idea and felt guilty for even considering it in the first place. He really didn't think he was ready for that. Carth didn't think he'd ever be ready for that.

Carth exited the tent and began making his way through the dark village hampered only by a light limp, just as Jerla had promised. The inhabitants huddled around their fires and Carth crossed his arms, grateful for the warmth of his jacket. He found Morii sitting on a supply canister and brooding. Zaalbar was hovering about ten feet away and Morii occasionally shot the Wookiee dark looks.

"Hey," Carth said as he came up behind her.

"Hey," she mumbled. "Pull up a crate." Morii realized Carth would want to talk, hell she knew they needed to talk. "Look I'm sorry…" she began.

"Morii, I didn't mean…" Carth started at the same time. They both paused and laughed. Carth waved a hand, "You first."

Morii took in a breath. "I really am um… sorry. I was cold and Jerla said you wouldn't wake up." Okay it was a lie, but a little lie. "I planned on being gone before you woke."

Carth chuckled, "Yeah, because you're always up before me."

Morii rolled her eyes at his sarcasm and laughed back. "I didn't say it was a good plan…," she grinned at Carth. "But I'm sorry for putting you in such an awkward position." Morii bit her lip. If she was honest she wasn't sorry at all. She had loved every minute of it.

"Well I'm sorry too," Carth returned. "I though I ah… offended you with the way you bolted out this morning."

Morii propped elbows on knees and put her chin in her hands. She raised both eyebrows in disbelief. "You really think I'm that innocent?" she smirked at him.

"As week-old snow," Carth joked. Morii was many things but innocent was definitely not one of them.

Morii laughed. "Well we're both adults right? And we'll just be mature and move past it."

"Right," Carth gave her a nod but he realized that the thought made him a bit sorry. "It was just… hormones… and stress."

"Yeah," Morii nodded, "Hormones and stress. It didn't mean anything." _That was all?_ Morii wondered. _I'm just a stress reliever?_ The thought didn't please her.

"Nothing at all," Carth agreed. _Didn't it?_

It was for the best, Morii told herself. Even if she did want more, where would it lead? A big fat nowhere, that's where. This way they both remained friends and no one got hurt; especially her. Morii stood and held out a hand to help Carth up, "C'mon, flyboy, let's go rob some gangsters."

* * *

The group gathered and made their way through the Under City and to the sewer entrance with only one attack. Apparently between their group, the mercs Gendar had mentioned and the Sith patrols wandering around the area, the rakghouls had been cleaned out for now at least. 

The sewers were dirty and wet and Morii complained the whole time. Carth lost his balance laughing at her and fell against a wall when a stream of water dripped down Morii's back under her armor. She hopped around the sewer corridor for a full minute yelling "Ick! Ick! Ick!" She then took off the armor top and demanded someone wipe it off, someone who wasn't Carth since he had laughed at her.

Because the grates were slippery with moisture, they had to take it slow and Carth found he had no problem keeping up. His leg really did feel amazing. The security shield was right by the entrance and Mission had it down in five minutes. Morii whistled appreciatively at the girl and joked about never leaving anything valuable where Mission could find it. Mission gave Morii a good natured shove in return as they wandered down the sewers.

The tunnels in the area were currently home to a couple groups of Gamorrean slave hunters but no rakghouls. The Gamorreans seemed to have claimed that region of the sewers and had probably taken out any ghouls in the area. The green-skinned aliens were certainly tough enough.

The second group consisting of three Gamorreans squealed in pleasure when they spotted them as they entered the same tunnel.

"/Lookee, boys, big payday,/" the leader said to the other two.

"/Yeah Humee and Headtail females mean big credits!/" the second Gamorrean nudged the leader.

Mission and Morii shared an amused look while Carth began to chuckle behind them.

"/We kill lame male Humee and take females and Wookiee!/" the third said.

"Oh please don't hurt me," Morii began sarcastically, "I'm just a helpless woman." Mission snickered.

"/We no hurt you,/" the Gamorrean leader said, Morii's sarcasm completely lost on him. "/Undamaged Humee female better! You guys play nice and only male Humee dies./"

Carth started laughing at the absurdity of the conversation, "I think I'm insulted. What I'm not good enough to be a slave?"

Gamorrean Number Three blinked his small eyes in confusion, "/Male Humee wants to be a slave too?/"

"Sure," Carth shrugged and the rest of the group started laughing. "Sounds like fun."

"/Oh, okay…/"

"/No, stupid!/" the leader shoved at Gamorrean Number Three. "/We kill the male Humee! Kill the Wookiee too if he makes a problem! Females big creds!/"

The whole group was in hysterics at this point despite the danger. Morii pulled her weapon and the rest followed suit. "Well if you want to kill him," she told the Gamorreans with a narrow-eyed smile, "you're going to have to go through me."

"And me!" Mission proclaimed.

"/And me as well!/" Zaalbar growled.

The three Gamorreans began squealing and charged.

The fight was quick and dirty. Gamorreans were strong but slow and all three of them dropped before they got a single hack in with their large axes. Traditionally–minded Gamorreans tended to hold disdain for ranged weapons and luckily these ones didn't seem terribly progressive. After the last of the Gamorreans fell, Mission commented, "Luckily Gamorreans aren't too bright."

"Actually," Morii interrupted as she picked a plasma grenade off one of the Gamorrean corpses, "the females are pretty intelligent. It's the males that are morons. It's no wonder the women all kick them off-world except for breeding."

Morii poked at a furry attachment on the dead Gamorrean's back with her sword. "Yuck," she commented as the parasite wiggled in response.

They finally reached the end of the sewers and found the rancor Gadon had warned them about. Morii darted back around the corner and looked at the rest of them, "Holy fracking Force that thing is big! I don't think even all four of us can take it down."

"What was that thing Gadon gave you?" Carth asked her.

"Smelly," Morii explained. "It's supposed to smell like some sort of rancor native prey and they can scent it from up to twenty feet away." Carth looked nervously in the direction of the rancor and Morii smiled, "It's sealed right now."

"Well I can sneak by it with a stealth belt… but Big Z's not very stealthy," Mission offered.

"I'm utter crap with a stealth belt," Morii said and looked a question at Carth.

"Don't look at me!" he protested. "I just shoot people." Morii gave him a smile at the joke.

Morii tapped her fingers on her thigh as she thought. "Okay, what if there was some way we could lure it into some mines or something…"

"Well I can lay the mines," Mission said, "I'm good at sneaking around. That big ugly will never know I'm there."

"/What if we could get the rancor to eat a grenade with the vial the Beks gave you?/" Zaalbar suggested as Mission translated for Carth.

"That might work…" Morii pulled the plasma grenade she had lifted earlier. "I think we need a stronger grenade than a frag though. Pity," she frowned at plasma grenade, "I was hoping to save this."

"For what?" Carth asked.

"Oh, I dunno, I was going to name it Bob." Morii grinned at Carth, "Big Bang Bob."

He laughed back, "You're nuts, Beautiful, you know that?"

Morii narrowed her eyes at Carth and shook the plasma grenade at him. "Be nice to Bob," she threatened.

After a couple of minutes of brainstorming they finally came up with a plan. Morii rewired the grenade with Zaalbar's help to have a longer timed detonation.

Since their argument, she had been ignoring the Wookiee but in discussing the best way to rewire the grenade things between them began to relax a bit. Still, Morii was not happy about this whole life-debt thing and intended to do some digging into Wookiee culture the first chance she got. Zaalbar was being ridiculously stubborn about the whole damn thing. Morii knew there was no point in arguing with him. So she decided to ignore it until she had more ammunition. There was no way she was going along with the life-debt. Hell, Morii could barely take care of herself; she didn't want to be responsible for Zaalbar and his Twi'lek appendage as well.

When the grenade was ready, Mission was to sneak out into the rancor's den and set out the grenade and vial in a small sack. Then Mission was to run like hell back where the rest of them were hiding. The tunnel was too small for the rancor to fit through, so even if it saw the girl she should be able to make it back to safety.

Mission headed out with bag in hand and her stealth belt on after a warning to be careful from Carth and Morii and a back cracking hug from Zaalbar. Slowly Mission began creeping out into the large space the rancor inhabited. Her goal was a large pile of bones and half rotten flesh in the middle of the room. The girl guessed that this was the rancor's feeding area. As she reached the pile of bones Mission squatted down and opened the small bag. Carefully she flipped the switch on the grenade, and then pulled the sealed stopper from the Bek vial. A soon as the scent hit air the rancor raised its head and began sniffing. The giant picked its huge frame off of the floor and lumbered over to the bone pile. Mission made to bolt back to where her friends but the rancor was blocking her way as it began digging through the bone pile.

Carth was been using some infrared goggles Morii had lifted a few days ago to track Mission's progress. "Shavit!" he swore when he saw the rancor block the Twi'lek's escape path. Luckily Mission was still stealthed but at that range the rancor might catch Mission's scent. He pulled one of his blaster's and lowered the goggles.

"What?" Morii whispered. She grabbed the goggles and put them up to her eyes. "Double shavit!" she hissed as she saw what had happened.

Mission scrunched up against the wall as the rancor grabbed the sack and inhaled it in one gulp. It then began to weave its head in Mission's direction, searching out the new scent. Mission started to move down the wall, still invisible, and the rancor roared.

"Plan B," Carth had both his blasters out. Zaalbar also pulled his bowcaster and let out a roar that echoed through the sewers. Morii started digging in her pouch and began tossing grenades. The group sent a constant hail of firepower at the rancor to try and distract it from Mission. The plan worked. As blaster shots and grenades explodeed on its hide the rancor turned, threw back its head to let out a bellow of fury and charged at the sewer tunnel.

The floor began to vibrate from the shockwaves of the rancor's footsteps as Mission's friends continued to pelt the beast. It got to the tunnel entrance and howled in frustration as it realized there was no way to reach it quarry.

The rancor reached a claw into the entrance.

"Hit the deck!" Carth ordered as the beast swiped at them. All three dropped to their bellies as they could feel air pass over their heads. The rancor bellowed once more and then a shattering explosion rocked the sewers. A boom sounded as another quake shook the floor grates when the rancor fell to the ground.

Morii looked over at Zaalbar and after her ears stopped ringing said, "I think we miscalculated on the timer."

"/I believe so,/" Zaalbar looked at Morii and then bared his teeth in a grin. Morii started laughing and Zaalbar quickly followed. Carth watched them for a moment and then joined.

"Hey!" Mission's voice came from somewhere on the other side of the rancor corpse, "are you guys dead or what?"

"We're fine," Carth yelled back. "We just stopped for a caffa break."

Morii rolled over and grabbed her stomach as she began laughing harder. "What, no cream?" she sputtered. Zaalbar was letting out amused barks of his own.

"Very funny!" Mission yelled from the other side. "I almost died out there and you guys are having a party! Have any of you inbred gizka figured out how you're going to get around the dead rancor?"

Morii looked over at Carth and giggled, "Do we have any mountain climbing gear?"

Carth laughed and both his dark brows shot up. "I dunno; have you stolen any today?"

Still laughing occasionally Morii and Zaalbar picked themselves up and then helped Carth stand. The rancor had died right at the tunnel exit. "Mish?" Morii yelled as she looked up at the brown mountain blocking her path.

"Yeah?" came Mission's voice from the other side.

"I don't suppose you've got a rope in the bag of yours?"

Morii head Mission let out a snort, "Nope!"

"/I could probably push the both of you up,/" Zaalbar offered.

"That might work, then hopefully between Carth and I we can help haul you up, Z." Morii looked at the seven foot Wookiee. Zaalbar was no lightweight, but with the furry sentient's help they could probably manage.

Zaalbar gave what Morii guessed was a smirk at the statement, "/Don't worry about me, I can get up the rancor just fine./"

Morii raised her brows. Sure Z was tall but the top of the rancor corpse was a good fifteen feet up.

Zaalbar turned to Carth without further explanation and began helping him up first, with Morii steadying the pilot. Carth managed to shimmy himself into a gap between the dead rancor and the top of the tunnel entrance.

He turned himself around as he lay on the corpse and held his hands down toward Morii, "You're next, Beautiful."

Zaalbar gave Morii a boost and she grabbed Carth's outstretched hands. Carth pulled and Z pushed and Morii made it to the top of the rancor. Zaalbar surprised both Carth and Morii when he extended claws from his furry fingers and dug them into the rancor flesh. The Wookiee quickly scrambled up without needing any help at all. Morii stuck out her tongue in disgust at the bits of rancor blood and flesh that clung to Zaalbar's retractable claws. Still she had to admit it was pretty handy. Mission had produced a bit of cloth and tossed it up to her friend while Zaalbar chuffed his thanks and cleaned his claws.

Zaalbar slid down the other side of the body first and caught Morii and Carth. After they had made their way around the rancor mountain the group looked over at the door on the far side of the room. "That must be it," Carth remarked.

Morii gave a sigh, "I suppose that engine's not going to steal itself. Let's go."

The group reached the back door of the Vulkar base and positioned themselves with Carth and Morii on one side and Zaalbar and Mission on the other. Zaalbar pawed the door plate and the doors whooshed apart. They came around the doorway into two Vulkar guards who began firing. The four of them took the two guards down in short order.

"I can't believe they didn't hear all that noise," Mission commented of the two dead Vulkars.

Morii tapped the edge of the open doors with the tip of her sword. "Soundproof," she explained. "Seems kind of stupid to me but lucky for us I suppose."

Morii moved over to the bodies and found what she was looking for, along with a couple of extra energy shields. Taking the pass card she slipped it in the door lock and glanced back at the others. "Let's do it."


	17. Nest of Vulkars

AN: I know, I haven't updated this thing in forever and a day. Hopefully someone out there still wants to read it. My interest in the fandom lapsed for several months and my computer went kablooie so here you go. This was actually written several months ago and sat on various jump drives. Uilleand did a wonderful beta for me as always. Comments/constuctive critisms of course are welcome. Yeah its a long one. I just went ahead and loaded the whole chapter in here.

* * *

The Vulkar hallway Morii and the others found themselves in was empty and quiet

The Vulkar hallway Morii and the others found themselves in was empty and quiet. Somewhere in the distance they could hear loud techno dance music but the immediate area appeared deserted. The first room they came to was filled with crates and lockers. Mission proceeded to unlock containers and swipe anything that wasn't bolted down. Morii began laughing.

"Mish," she told the girl, "we can't take everything in the base with us!"

"Oh, right," Mission blushed. "Sorry, habit yah know?"

Morii grinned. "Well let's only take credits and anything small that might be useful."

"Gotchya," Mission nodded.

Carth raised an eyebrow at Morii and she gave him an eyebrow of her own. "What, you got a problem with robbing Vulkars now?"

Carth leaned forward to whisper to Morii, "Do you really think you should be encouraging her to steal?" He didn't want Mission to overhear their conversation. Carth had just finally made up with the kid.

Morii restrained a laugh as she whispered back, "Encourage her? She's been stealing for years. I don't need to encourage her. I just don't want to be loaded down with a bunch of unnecessary junk."

Carth sighed and rolled his eyes. "Fine, I give up."

Morii moved away from Carth and made a happy noise when she found a shut down patrol droid in the corner. She opened the access panel and took a look inside.

Zaalbar came up beside her. "/Its power core is corrupted./"

Morii gave a nod at the Wookiee. "A power pack might work."

Zaalbar gave her a surprised look. "/You can do that?/"

Morii shrugged. "Yeah, it'll be stupid as hell and the charge won't last very long, but it might provide a distraction."

Zaalbar was obviously impressed, "/Still, that kind of rewiring take a lot of skill./"

"Eh," Morii waved the compliment off. "I've got a knack with droids, always have." Morii took one of Mission's spare blaster power packs and proceeded to rewire the droid's core with an occasional suggestion from Zaalbar. After about five minutes, the droid perked up with a whir and charged down the hall.

"Where the hell is it going?" Carth asked as the droid took off.

"Well it's not going to last very long, so I programmed it to um… charge at anything that wasn't us. Like I said… a distraction," as Morii finished explaining, they heard a crashing noise and blaster fire. Carth shot Morii an amused look and she grinned back.

They all leaned against the door to the hallway and listened as the droid let out bleeps interspersed with Huttese and Basic curses from Black Vulkars. From the sounds of things, more and more Vulkars had shown up to deal with the malfunctioning droid. At that point a loud explosion came from the hallway with cries and screams.

Mission shot a shocked look at the rest of them. "What was that?"

Morii chuckled. "The droid exploded."

"You are a one-woman wrecking crew, you know that?" Carth asked her.

"Flattery will get you everywhere, flyboy." Morii gave Carth an evil grin. After a few moments of silence she said, "Let's go."

They opened the door and took in the carnage before them. The room across the hall was open and looked to be the Vulkar version of a small base cantina. It was empty except and all of its former occupants lay dead and smoldering in the hallway, along with scattered pieces of the droid. Morii wrinkled her nose at the smell and debated digging her olfactory blockers back out but decided it wasn't worth the bother. For once she didn't bother searching the corpses for loot. In this case it would have been searching the pieces of the corpses. _Ick_, she thought at the prospect.

They made their way through the cantina while Carth frowned up at the eardrum shattering music booming through the room. The next door lead to the kitchen and one very surprised cook. Blaster fire took him out before he could do more than charge at them.

Carth stuck his fingers in his ears and yelled, "No wonder he couldn't hear anything!"

"What?" Morii yelled back.

"I said…!" Carth ended up yelling in the silence as Mission wisely shut the door between the cantina and the kitchen. Carth dug a finger to dispel the ringing and continued, "No wonder he didn't hear anything. Force, that crap is loud."

"I like that song," Mission protested. "It's really screamin'."

"You would," Carth retorted. Mission stuck out her tongue in response.

Morii spotted a pretty young woman huddled in a corner. "Hey!" she said

The woman tried to climb up the wall in terror, "Please don't hurt me! I just serve the food!"

The woman was unarmed and obviously scared to death. "Um, okay," Morii sheathed her sword in an attempt to look non-threatening. The woman attempted to scoot into the wall again. "Hey!" Morii said, "I just want to ask some questions."

"But I don't know anything!" the girl cried. "I'm just a slave!"

Morii sighed at the woman. If she was a slave she knew plenty. Usually slaves knew more about what was going on than their masters. No one paid attention to slaves, and because of that they heard all sorts of stuff.

Carth holstered his blasters and squatted down to the slave's level. "Help us, and we'll help you, miss."

The girl began to relax as Morii watched Carth give the slave that smile that Morii knew from past observation could charm the pants off a female at twenty paces. Lucky for Morii she was immune. _Yeah right_! her mind snorted. _Tell yourself another one! Shut up!_ Morii shot back.

"Well… okay," the young woman smiled shyly at Carth and looked up at him through veiled lashes. Morii snorted and Mission giggled. The girl shot Morii a fearful look. When the hell had she gotten so scary?

"We're looking for another prisoner, her name's Bastila. Have you seen her?" Carth held out a hand to help the girl up.

The girl simpered as she took Carth's hand and let him help her stand. "The Republic woman?" Carth gave a nod at the slave and she continued, "She's not here. I head Brejik say he doesn't trust his men to behave around her. Are you with the Republic?" she asked Carth with wide eyes.

Morii rolled her eyes at the woman's blatant flirting, "No we're Hutts in disguise." The slave woman cringed into Carth and Morii had an unexplainable urge to yank the girl away from him. Holding her temper Morii continued, "What about the Hidden Bek prototype engine? Do you know where it is?"

"Oh!" the girl said in surprise. "That's the thing the Vulkars stole isn't it?" she looked at Carth instead of Morii when she asked this. Carth gave a nod and she continued, "I don't know but I'll bet it would be somewhere on the lower level in the garage area. That's where the Vulkars keep all their bikes. You need a pass card to get down there, though. They have a group of turrets guarding the elevator."

Carth smiled at the woman. "Thanks, you were very helpful." The slave girl blushed back at him.

Morii decided to ignore them and turned to Mission and Z, "I think we need to find a computer terminal. I might be able to shut down the elevator security from there."

"What about the schutta?" Mission asked softly while Morii grinned back at the remark and Mission's loyalty. The schutta was currently weeping all over Carth while telling him how horrible her current life as a slave was. Carth looked a tad bewildered as he attempted to comfort her while she clung to him.

Morii waggled her eyebrows, "We could find a closet to lock her in until we find the engine." Mission giggled in response.

Unfortunately, Carth didn't really like Morii's suggestion when she mentioned it so they ended up dragging one drooling love slave along with them. At least the girl was smart enough to stay in the back and out of the way when they encountered a patrol of Vulkars and guard droids.

Morii found a terminal connected to the Vulkar network and proceeded to slice her way in. After a couple of lost spikes and a good swift kick to the terminal base Morii managed to break the Vulkars' encryption. She downloaded floor plans, shut down the turrets and just for good measure blew a couple of conduits in the barracks. That'll teach the bastards to attack her for just walking down the street. Even better, the look on her face caused the 'Carth Groupie,' as she had dubbed the slave woman, to shudder when she looked at Morii.

The group backtracked to the elevator. As they entered the lift, Morii frowned at Carth's groupie and dug out an energy shield. "Here," she tossed the shield at the other woman. "I expect it's going to get nasty."

The slave quickly tied the shield around her arm and activated it.

"There's only four charges left," Morii told the girl, "so don't waste it." The slave gave a nod. Morii had a sneaking suspicion that the other woman wasn't nearly as scared and helpless as she was putting on. In fact, Morii figured Carth's groupie was using the act to grope at Carth. The thought made Morii scowl at the woman. The groupie used the scowl as an excuse to attempt to crawl up Carth again, but there was a certain light in her eyes. To Carth's credit he was beginning to look seriously annoyed with his new fan. When Carth shot Morii a scowl as the groupie clutched at him, Morii could help but send an amused look back. _That's what he gets for flirting with everything with breasts_, Morii thought smugly. If Morii didn't know better, she would think she was jealous.

They all had weapons ready as the elevator opened. This was apparently the main hanger and it was empty except for a patrol droid making lazy circuits on the far end of the room.

Morii turned to the others. "The damn plans I downloaded don't include this level. We need to find another terminal."

Zaalbar gave a low growl, "/Another deactivated droid/" he pointed. Sure enough across the room from them a droid sat slumped over by a hallway.

Morii gave Zaalbar a grin and they all crept toward the off-line droid, careful to not alert the one on the other side of the large room. Morii squatted down next to it and opened an access panel. This droid had its power core and looked to have been shut down for maintenance… jackpot!

Morii could hear Zaalbar whispering to Mission asking if she had any food left in her bag and the groupie was whining something to Carth. Morii was concentrating on reprogramming the droid and she didn't hear the footsteps until it was too late. The sound of a blaster charging caused her too look up. The last thing she saw was a man's face leering down at her before she reeled back from the shot. Morii's whole body began to tingle with pins and needles as her vision faded.

* * *

Carth had been attempting to pull the woman Ada off of him when he heard the blaster fire. He saw Morii fall back on the ground, shoved Ada away and pulled both blasters. Zaalbar and Mission were a second behind and the Vulkar's torso jerked with the impact as the shots took him to the ground.

Mission and Zaalbar knelt by Morii, and Carth was a second behind. Mission looked up and said, "I think she's okay it was just a stun shot."

Carth sighed with relief, but now they were down one person. "Let's see if we can find somewhere relatively safe and out of the way." Carth looked down the hall the Vulkar had come from, "It looks like there may be some offices down there, but I doubt they're empty."

"/I have some stims that might negate the stun bolt/" Zaalbar began digging but Carth stopped him.

Carth looked a question at Mission and after she translated he said, "Let's find some place to hole up first. Zaalbar… you mind?" Carth waved a hand at Morii's limp form. Zaalbar chuffed and threw Morii over one shoulder. He gave Carth a nod and lifted his bowcaster in his other hand. Carth returned the gesture and they were off.

They ran into several more Vulkars as the came around the hall corner and ducked as blaster fire started flying. Carth stayed toward the back with Ada crouching behind him. Mission had dug out some grenades and lobbed one down the hall. The Twi'lek let out a triumphant yell when the grenade shattered and two of the Vulkars dropped. Another guard had come up to Zaalbar and the Wookiee dropped the bowcaster and picked the Vulkar female up by the neck with his free hand. With a roar, he threw her into the far wall. The Vulkar slid down and lay in a crumpled heap on the floor. The act startled the rest of the Vulkars, and Carth picked off one who was staring at the unconscious woman in horror. All three of them focused their fire on the last remaining Vulkar and he quickly dropped.

They trotted down the hall and found what looked to be a main office. There was one Vulkar sitting behind the desk that stood in shock when he saw them. "Who the hell…" the man never finished the sentence as Carth took him down with two shots.

"Mission, can you jam that door?" Carth asked as he walked into the room.

"Pffft, no prob… hey, Carth!" Mission was staring at him with wide eyes.

"What?" Carth spun around at Mission's shocked look expecting to find another Vulkar. The room was empty except for the five of them.

Mission pointed at his leg. "You're not limping!"

Carth looked down at his leg. "Well I'll be damned. When did that happen?" Carth hadn't even noticed that he had begun putting all of his weight on his left leg until Mission pointed it out. "Must not have been as bad as it looked," he mused.

Mission knew for a fact that it was as bad, if not worse than it looked, and stared at Carth like he'd suddenly sprouted headtails.

"Mish, the door," Carth interrupted her thoughts and Mission turned to the office door with a nod still stunned by Carth's leg.

Zaalbar laid Morii on the floor and began digging in a pouch tied to his belt. Carth came up next to him and put a hand on Morii's forehead. The gesture reminded him of those three days in the apartment waiting for her to wake up. Zaalbar made a happy noise and pulled out a stim from the pouch. He took it and injected it into Morii's bicep.

"Is she going to be all right?" a soft voice asked from behind. Carth had completely forgotten about Ada until that moment.

Zaalbar muttered something and gave Carth a nod. Mission had finished with the door and came up next to them.

"He says, yeah," Mission told Carth while ignoring the slave woman. "Although depending on the intensity of the stun she may be a little out of it."

Morii let out a low moan at this point and cracked an eye. She then stretched, yawned and asked, "Did we find the engine yet?"

Carth snorted. "Oh yeah, and you won the swoop race, got Bastila back and the Republic sent the fleet in and sent the Sith running with their tail between their legs into the next sector."

Morii gave him a beatific smile, "Yay me…" She then frowned and looked at Zaalbar. "Z, you smell like wet Kath." She scolded. Zaalbar growled back at her.

"Told yah you needed a bath," Mission put in. Zaalbar roared at Mission and the girl giggled.

Morii started laughing and began petting Zaalbar's arm. "Fuzzy…" she observed and then descended into giggles. Zaalbar managed to look embarrassed.

Carth ran his hand down his face in aggravation, "How long is she going to be like this?" he asked the Wookiee.

Zaalbar shrugged and tried to move away from Morii's attention. Morii sat up and hugged his arm. Zaalbar looked down at her horrified. Mission was letting out giggles of her own. Zaalbar began frantically digging in his pouch and pulled out another stim.

When Morii saw the stim, she beamed up at Zaalbar. "Weee, more drugs!" She descended into laughter. Zaalbar gave her an exasperated look and injected the stim.

Morii's laughter subsided and she blinked a few times, disoriented. Looking up at the faces staring down at her, Morii waved a hand. "I'm better… I think."

Zaalbar chuffed and gave a meaningful look down to where one of Morii's hands was still latched around his upper arm.

"Oops," Morii blushed. "Um… sorry, Z."

Zaalbar let out a rumbling Wookiee chuckle as Morii let go of his arm.

"Can you fight?" Carth asked as he grabbed Morii under one arm to help her up.

She let Carth help her stand and gave a nod. "Yeah, I think so. I just need a minute or two." She looked over at the terminal situated in the desk. A little unsteady, Morii stumbled a bit as she went over to the console and sat down hard in the chair. She still felt a bit woozy, but it was improving with every second.

Morii began rummaging through the desk drawers until she found what she was looking for. She pulled out the dead Garage Head's security card; slipped it inside the terminal and went to work. After she had unlocked the doors, located the engine and downloaded the bottom level's schematics, Morii started to chuckle.

"I don't think I want to know, but I'm going to ask anyway." Carth had a slight scowl on his face.

Morii gave him an innocent grin and waved Carth over. Zaalbar, Mission and even Ada the groupie came up to the desk and huddled around the terminal.

"I think I just found a way to up my odds for the race," Morii said as she punched up the garage commands. Several of the Vulkar swoop bikes were currently tied in to the base's computer network, getting last minute upgrades downloaded. Morii whistled when she read some of the programs the Vulkars were running. No wonder Gadon was freaking out. They were semi-AI systems that would considerably enhance the bikes' speed and reaction times. Morii had never actually seen a bike with these kinds of upgrades. You usually only saw programs like this on the professional circuit. Taris was part of the underground swoop circuit, like the one Morii had run on Talus. It almost seemed a shame to blow them.

Morii corrupted the codes and set the reactor cores in the bikes to overheat. As the group watched on the security holo alarms went off in the hanger. Morii chuckled when she saw four Vulkars come running into the garage to check their bikes. The Vulkars yanked open access panels but they were too late to do anything. All four swoop bikes exploded simultaneously in a brilliant shower of sparks, killing the Vulkars in the process.

Mission let a whoop of joy as the bikes blew. She then turned to Morii and grinned, "Hey, can you teach me to do that?"

"What blow up swoop bikes?" Morii joked.

"No gizka-brain, that stuff you do with computers."

Morii thought about it. She honestly hoped to leave both Mission and Zaalbar in Lyn's care once they figured out a way off this rock. She felt a little guilty about ditching them, but Lyn would look out for the twosome. Maybe in the meantime… "How about a trade? You give me some security slicing tips, and I'll give you some computer system ones?"

"Deal!" Mission stuck out her hand and Morii gave it a shake.

She stood up from the desk and was pleased to note that her legs had stopped wobbling. "Well," she looked up at Carth, "I found the engine…"

"Lemme guess," Carth gave a rueful smile, "it's heavily guarded."

"Yup," Morii responded and brought up the holo for the room that containing the stolen swoop accelerator.

"Hey!" Mission pointed at the holo. "That's Kandon, Brejik's second in command. He's a real bastard and his schutta girlfriend Chenal is just as bad. Those two aren't going to go down easy."

"Hopefully we still have the element of surprise," Carth put in. "If anybody doesn't have an energy shield equipped, do it now." He turned to Ada, "You'd better stay here. I have a feeling this might get nasty." Carth looked over at Morii as she slapped a shield on her arm. "How far is the room?"

"Just down the hall," Morii raised her brows in emphasis.

Carth gave a nod, "Let's go."

The four of them left Ada behind in the locked office and headed down the hall. The door to the room with the engine was closed and all of them activated their shields. Morii pulled her blade and a grenade, Carth gave a nod seeing they were all as ready as they were going to get and activated the door plate.

Morii tossed the grenade into the room as soon as the doors slid apart. Screams echoed as the room filled with smoke from the explosion and fragments from the grenade-penetrated flesh. She crouched down to make herself a smaller target and hacked her way through the guards. She could hear blaster shots behind her as Carth and the others began firing. Shots were traded from both directions as the Vulkars regrouped and retuned the assault. Morii gritted her teeth when she heard Mission let out a pain-filled cry, but focused on the human in front of her who had just pulled his own blade.

Morii narrowed her focus into the battle; parrying blows from her opponent while ducking the occasional blaster shot aimed her way. When she saw an opening she dropped down onto her left hand and swept out her right leg, knocking the Vulkar's feet out from under him. Morii ignored his look of panic as she brought down her sword to finish him off.

Last-minute instinct warned Morii and she rolled on the floor and another gangster's blow narrowly missed her neck. She came up on one knee as the Trandoshan brought down a heavy vibrosword. Morii swept her blade up and blocked the blow. She grunted with the effort as the reptilian sentient brought all of his considerable weight to bear on her smaller frame. Morii's eyes widened as the Vulkar sword inched closer and closer to her face. She was locked in a battle of strength and was very much outclassed.

Her personal shield picked this moment to crap out on her and Morii figured she had about a second before another Vulkar got in a lucky shot. The Trandoshan bared his sharp teeth as his blade pressed into her throat. Without warning the Trandoshan's head jerked to the right and he fell over with a smoking hole in the side of his skull . Zaalbar ran up and lifted Morii to her feet.

"Nice shot, Z!" she yelled and the Wookiee bared his teeth in a grin. Morii looked around the room and saw all the other Vulkars were dead. Carth was over by Mission who was slumped against a wall. He was whispering something to the girl while he opened a kolto patch as Mission clung to her right arm. Morii and Zaalbar came over and kneeled next to the Twi'lek.

Zaalbar crooned as he stroked the top of Mission's head. Morii gave Carth a nervous look and put a hand on the girl's good shoulder. "How you doing, Mish?"

Mission winced as Carth treated the wound. Tears were making a trail down her face but her voice barely trembled when she answered, "I'm okay… fracking shavit!" she swore as the antiseptic of the kolto hit her wound.

"You've been hanging out with Morii too long," Carth's voice was soft and gentle as he secured the medicinal wrap. He looked up at the other three, "She might need some time in a tank. That shot took a chunk out of her forearm."

Mission tried to laugh. "Geezer, I've been talking like that for years." She made a small noise as Carth injected a med pack.

Morii bit her lip as she watched Mission get patched up. Carth was right; she never should have brought Mission with them. This was all Morii's fault because she had been more concerned with getting past that shield than the ethical dilemma of taking a teenager into a dangerous situation. That did it, she was going to have to either find a way out of this life-debt with Zaalbar or figure out a way to ditch them when she left Taris. Her life had no place for a child in it, even one as tough as Mission.

"She'll be all right won't she?"

"Yeah, she'll be okay," Carth reassured her. " It's just muscle damage and lucky for her she's left handed." He gave Morii a shaken smile. "She's tough. Kept right on firing even after she'd been hit."

Zaalbar continued to croon and Morii realized he was singing some sort of lullaby to Mission. Mission picked it up as well because she snorted, "Knock it off, Big Z. I'm not a baby."

"/No, you are a stupid, stupid cub! You make me crazy, you know that?/" Zaalbar continued to sing to her after his rebuke.

Mission snorted in response but leaned into Zaalbar. "Did we get the engine?" she asked Morii.

Morii got up and walked to the table in the far corner where the engine had been on the holo monitor. Her blood froze when she realized the table was empty.

"/Well, well, well/" a male voice came from the room's door. "/Looking for this?/" Kandon stood in the door way with his girlfriend Chenal and two other Vulkars. Kandon had the swoop engine tucked under his left arm, and three of the four gangsters had blasters pointed at Carth, Mission and Zaalbar. Kandon's weapon was trained on Morii

Kandon bared his teeth at Morii. "/We didn't go through all the trouble of stealing the engine just to lose it to a couple of mercs./" His voice was smug as he indicated Morii and Carth with a nod. "/So how much is Gadon paying you two? I'll bet you're thinking right now that it's not nearly enough/" Kandon laughed at his own joke and the other three Vulkars joined. "/Drop the knife!/" he ordered Morii while he waved his blaster in a threatening manner at her.

Morii felt her stomach knot in fear and dropped her sword.

Kandon smiled again. "/Smart human/" he observed. "/Hands up and come join your friends. The rest of you drop your weapons!"/

Morii lifted her hands to shoulder level while Carth and Zaalbar disarmed. Carth had moved himself between Mission and the blasters pointed at them while Zaalbar still had the Twi'lek cradled in his hairy arms. As Morii moved over toward the others, Kandon grabbed her by the braid in her hair and yanked her down to the floor. Carth jerked slightly at the action but stayed put and caught Morii as she fell. Kandon laughed at the glare Carth sent him.

"/Now, I have a business proposal for the two of you./" Kandon gave them a nasty smile. "/If you're smart, you'll take it./"

"What kind of proposal?" Morii asked as she glared back. _Keep him talking… keep him talking…_

"/I'm offering you a job with the Black Vulkars…/" Kandon began.

While Kandon started to tell them what he wanted them to do, Carth dropped his eyes to Morii's right boot. _Shavit!_ She had forgotten all about her holdout blaster as she almost never used it. Morii gave a sideways look back at Carth and made the smallest nod she could in response. At the same time, she felt a smooth object press into the back of her wrist. Morii opened her palm and felt small, nimble fingers place a grenade in her hand.

"/So how about it?/" Kandon finished. "/We double your pay and you take care of Gadon for us?/"

Morii appeared to think about it. "Well there's one other thing I want…" she began

"/What's that?/" Kandon smirked at what he thought was her greed.

Morii narrowed her eyes as she looked up. A small, twisted smile crossed her face. "I want you to die." Morii flipped the grenade trigger, shot out her right arm and the grenade rolled into the middle of the four Vulkars. She dove onto Mission and Zaalbar and felt Carth's heavy frame land on top of her.

The explosion rocked the room as pain-filled cries came from the Vulkars. Carth reached in Morii's boot and dug the blaster out. He sat up and sent one shot at Chenal, who was the only gang member still standing. She fell with a gasp as Kandon scrambled around the floor to where his blaster lay. Carth sent another shot and Kandon fell backwards, dead.

The sat for a moment reeling and then Morii looked at Carth. "That was way too close," she said with wide eyes.

Carth nodded in agreement. "Let's get the hell out of here."

"Don't forget about your girlfriend," Morii grinned at him.

Carth gave her a scathing look at the reference to Ada and Morii sent back a sweet smile.

* * *

They made a sling for Mission's right arm, picked up Carth's new appendage, Ada, and headed back up the elevator with one prototype swoop engine. The base was curiously empty as they crept through the halls. Still, they reached the front entrance to the Lower Cities and surprised the two guards on duty outside. After they took care of the guards, Morii and the others made their way to the Hidden Bek base.

The first person they ran into was Lyn, who scolded them all while clucking over Mission's arm. The Beks had a med facility in the base, which was probably a requirement in such a dangerous organization. Carth watched Morii's friend scold her for scaring her to death with the note. Morii was surprisingly silent throughout the lecture.

Lyn, ever the loyal friend, saw Ada clinging to Carth and promptly took charge of the slave woman. As the Twi'lek moved the girl off Carth, she shot Morii a smile and a wink over her shoulder. Morii returned it with a frown. It's not like she and Carth were dating or anything.

After they got Mission settled in the med facility, Carth and Morii left her, with Zaalbar for company, and headed to find Gadon Thek

As they entered Gadon's office, he looked up in shock. Evidentially he hadn't expected them to make it back. His face morphed into delight when Morii produced the engine.

"Okay, Gadon, I lived up to my end of the deal…" Morii scowled at the Hidden Bek leader while he practically drooled on the engine.

"Don't worry," Gadon looked up at her, "I'm a man of my word. The race is in three days. I'll get my mechanics to work on installing this on my best bike right away, and you still have a few days to practice."

Morii gave a relieved sigh. "I haven't been on a bike since Talus, and I need all the practice I can get. I'd like to ask about the engine's projected performance though."

"Well, I'm no mechanic, but come with me and you can meet the guys that will be installing this baby." Gadon gave the engine a pat and Morii followed him out of the office. Carth declined to go with and headed back for the med bay.

Carth winced as he headed back. While his armor had taken the brunt of the shrapnel from the frag grenade he could feel a few pieces digging into his shoulders and upper arms. He needed to get the pieces removed before they began to fester.

As Carth entered the medical room, he saw Mission in a chair chatting up the medic with her right arm submerged in a kolto bath. Carth walked to the medic and told him about his injury.

* * *

Morii spent several hours talking with the Bek mechanics about the engine's performance and specifications. The way the two mechanics talked, they made it sound like a spaceship ion drive. Morii hoped she could handle it. They assured her that it _probably_ wouldn't blow during the race… but Gadon had been looming over the whole conversation so she wasn't sure how honest the mechanics were being. The thought of crawling on a bike with the engine installed made her stomach do flip flops.

Morii was also aware that there was no way she had blown all of the Vulkars' bikes at the base, so if she was going to have a shot at getting Bastila, she needed the engine. After viewing some of the programs the Vulkars had been putting into their bikes, she wasn't sure if even the prototype would be enough.

Mission came bounding into the room with a heavily wrapped arm, followed by Carth and Zaalbar. Except for Mission they looked as beat as Morii was.

"Lyn's?" she asked.

"Force, yes," Carth sank into a chair in the room. "I could sleep for a week."

They gathered up their things, left the base with Lyn and headed to the Twi'lek woman's apartment building. When they arrived, Lyn shooed them all into the living room and started cooking a meal for them. Morii's stomach growled and her mouth watered as she realized she hadn't eaten since they'd left the Under City very early that morning.

Carth had taken the first turn in the shower, and Mission had roped Zaalbar into a game of pazaak on the living room floor. Morii moved over to the kitchen and watched Lyn cook, while periodically snagging bits of food before they went into the meal.

"/So/" Lyn began in a casual tone, "/Tell me about this Carth guy./"

Morii scowled up from the table to Lyn by the stove. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

Lyn laughed, "/Oh I get it, you're playing stupid. You may be able to fool others with that, but I know better./"

Morii stole one of Lyn's cigarras off of the table and lit it. Morii was only a casual smoker, but figured after the day she'd had she could use one. "What's there to tell?" she gave a half shrug. "He's a pilot for the Republic. We ended up in an escape pod together. He saved my life and I guess I felt grateful, so I'm helping him out."

"/What about the fact that you're checking out his ass ever chance you get?/" Lyn picked up a large spoon and stirred the pot on the stove.

Morii sputtered and began to choke on the smoke she just inhaled. "I do not!" she protested after coughing up a lung.

Lyn grinned, "/You do too. Can't say I blame you. I've even sneaked a peek a time or two, just don't tell Cerren./" Lyn shot Morii a wicked smile.

Morii laughed at the look. "Well no, I'm not sleeping with him if that's what you're asking."

"/You like him./" Lyn gave the pot a small smile.

"He's okay," Morii replied in a casual tone. "He's kind of moody, and he did accuse me at one point of being a traitor and single-handedly blowing up our ship." She scowled and put out her cigarra at the memory.

Lyn raised her eyebrows, "/Somehow I think you're exaggerating./"

"Maybe," Morii leaned back in the chair and crossed her arms in front of her. She really didn't want to have this conversation. She knew where it was heading.

"/You do know that every guy isn't Therano?/" Lyn asked softly.

"I know that!" Morii reached for another cigarra, but at the last second grabbed a vegetable slice off of the table instead. "I don't think that Carth is anything like Therano," she grumbled as she chewed her food.

Lyn sighed, "/So what's the problem? He likes you, too. I can tell. You can't keep yourself shut down like this, Morii. It's time to open up again./" Lyn held up a hand before Morii could protest. "/What about Mission?/" she asked softly. "/That girl thinks the galaxy of you, and Zaalbar actually went so far as to swear a life-debt to you… and if I know you, you're planning on ditching them the first chance you get./"

Morii refused to look and Lyn. She realized with disgust that she was sulking. "Look at my life, Lyn. I can't take them along for the ride. What the hell am I going to do with a Wookiee tag-a-long? And Mission? Force, I can't give the girl anything remotely resembling normal. At least you'd have a better chance of that than me. Not the mention the fracking bounty…"

Lyn put a lid on the pot and sat down across from Morii. Lyn stared at Morii for a minute before she sighed. "/You could at least tell them. Don't just sneak out in the middle of the night, Morii. They all deserve better than that./"

"And they deserve better than me," Morii grumbled and felt Lyn put a hand on hers.

"/Don't sell yourself short, sweetie. As for Carth…/"

"We're friends," Morii told her. "That's all. And that's all it's going to be."

Carth wandered into the living room, pulling down his shirt. "All finished. Who's next?"

"Me," Morii proclaimed. She moved off to the fresher and heard Lyn sigh behind her.

* * *

Brejik scowled at what remained of his second in command. Turning to an enforcer he shouted, "Where are the blasted security tapes?"

"Slicers are trying to access the system but there's a lot of corrupted data," The enforcer narrowed his dark eyes. "Someone broke into the system and screwed a lot of it up."

"I want to know who did this!" The pitch of Brejik's voice had started to rise, which meant he was close to losing it. "I want them dead! Nobody messes with me and lives! Get me that slicer now!"

The enforcer, Blyndag, turned and headed down to the garage office with a small smile. He had been a minor player in the Black Vulkars until Brejik had taken leadership. Now he was one of Brejik's top men. The old Vulkar leader Trand had never appreciated Blyndag, said he was too impulsive. With Brejik, the Vulkars had power and respect. Brejik had been smart enough to take the gifts Davik Kang had sent, where Trand had thrown them back in the Exchange leader's face. Brejik had big plans for the Lower Cities. Once the Beks were out of the way and Brejik had all of the smaller gangs under his thumb, they would move in on Davik. Davik thought his gifts bought Brejik's loyalty, but Brejik only took them to make the Vulkars strong… strong enough to rule this section of the Lower Cities. Fantasies of power and wealth accompanied Blyndag as he went to fetch the slicer.

Blyndag entered the office and found the slicer tapping away at the dead garage head's desk. "Brejik wants to see you," he jerked a thumb back out the hall. "You'd better have something for him." The enforcer gave the slicer a nasty smile.

"/To the pit with you, Blyn/" the female Rodian shot back. "/As a matter of fact I do have something for Brejik, so shut your hole and wipe that smirk off your face./" The slicer stood up and headed out of the office without waiting to see if Blyndag followed. She knew he would… being the stupid, rabid Kath he was.

Brejik's head jerked up as Blyndag and the slicer entered the room. "Well?" Brejik demanded.

"/Let me punch it up./" The Rodian headed to the terminal in the back of the room and entered some sequences. After a moment, holos of different scenes began playing in the center of the room. Brejik recognized the aliens as some Bek hangers-on,'s but the humans weren't part of the rival gang.

After the last scene of the woman throwing the grenade into Kandon and his group finished its play-through, Brejik turned to Blyndag. "I want to know who the man and the woman are. I don't care how many credits it takes, or how many people you have to kill, I want their names! And then… I want them dead!" Brejik spat. "You succeed, Blyn, and you get Kandon's old job." Brejik spun and walked out of the room.


End file.
